Limeade CEO Henry Albrecht. Photo: Limeade.
Limeade CEO Henry Albrecht. Photo: Limeade.

Accolade, a health care company that helps individuals and businesses navigate the healthcare system, announced today that it is teaming up with corporate wellness startup Limeade to help mutual customers stay healthy.

Limeade, which employs 200 at its Bellevue, Wash., headquarters and serves about 200 large companies worldwide, consists of a network of technology services that help users improve well-being.

“We’re into measurably improving well-being and engagement, and driving business results for companies through a whole person approach to wellbeing, one that recognizes that physical, mental, financial, and work well-being are all related,” Limeade CEO Henry Albrecht said.

The closer relationship between the companies brings advantages to each, including driving more customers to each platform, he said. Accolade, which helps workers understand and take advantage of their health care benefits, will help employees find and understand Limeade benefits.

Accolade CEO Raj Singh.
Accolade CEO Raj Singh.

“We definitely try to follow the science on how people improve, and a key part of that is making sure that people feel like they aren’t being told what to do but that they are being given resources,” Albrecht said.

On the flip side, Limeade’s services will help Accolade drive down healthcare costs for customers and connect customers to services that work for them, said Accolade CEO Rajeev Singh, who took the helm of Accolade earlier this year with his Concur co-founder Mike Hilton.

“What’s the single best way to reduce healthcare expenditure? It’s to stay healthy, to drive wellness,” Singh said. “Companies are providing incredible incentives to their employees to do that, and they’re also providing these incredible tools to actually improve your health. And one of the best in the market that we’ve found is what Henry and Limeade are doing.”

Singh said about 40 percent of healthcare costs could have been avoided because of needless healthcare spending.

“You don’t think about health care at all until you need it. And then when you need it, you realize that it’s this incredibly opaque system” which can be incredibly difficult to navigate, Singh said.

Albrecht and Singh are both fixtures in the Seattle technology and startup scene and are excited to be keeping the partnership local. Accolade, whose headquarters are split between Seattle and Philadelphia, recently raised more than $70 million in new funding, led by Silicon Valley powerhouse Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from Seattle-based Madrona Venture Group.

“We didn’t do this relationship with Limeade because they’re in Seattle, we did it because they are innovators in their space and they’re driving incredible results,” Singh said.

But being able to build an innovative, productive partnership close to home is, of course, a plus.

Like what you're reading? Subscribe to GeekWire's free newsletters to catch every headline

Job Listings on GeekWork

Find more jobs on GeekWork. Employers, post a job here.