Stepful, which aims to ease staff shortages in healthcare, has closed a $12 million Series A led by AlleyCorp Impact, the New York venture firm’s social impact arm. Other participants included Company Ventures (New York) and West Coast firms SemperVirens, Reach Capital Y Combinator, Green Sands Equity and 01 Advisors.
The New York-headquartered startup, co-founded by the trio of CEO Carl Madi, Edoardo Serra and Tressia Hobeika, has so far raised $36.3 million since setting out to ease healthcare shortages that began in the Covid-19 era.
Targeting the Underserved
“Stepful is paving the way for people from underserved communities to get access to healthcare training,” Madi, a graduate of the Wharton School, said on LinkedIn.
Madi led global strategy at Uber, working in the Netherlands as well as the United Arab Emirates; and also served consulting firm A.T. Kearney before embarking on his entrepreneurial journey.
Hobeika previously worked at edtech startup Udacity and consulting firm Oliver Wyman in Dubai. Serra was an Apple engineer for nearly a decade, during which time he notably oversaw Siri’s global expansion, and development of the Italian-language version.
Two New Board Members
Subsequent to the funding round, Stepful handed board seats to CommonSpirit’s Wanda Cole-Frieman and AlleyCorp Impact’s Tanya Beja. SemperVirens general partner Allison Baum Gates was named board observer.
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“Stepful fits our investment criteria like a glove,” Beja, a managing partner at AlleyCorp, told Axios. “It’s affordable and it meets people where they are.”
Notably, Stepful targets people without college degrees to train for healthcare jobs. It leverages technology to attain its goal, “using a mobile-first approach that includes short videos, group projects, simulations and community learning modules,” according to Axios.
So far, over 3,000 students have been trained by Madi and placed in jobs, such as medical assistants, pharmacy technicians, surgical technologists and licensed practical nurses.
