Watsi


Watsi is a nonprofit healthcare crowdsourcing platform that enables individual donors to directly fund medical care for individuals in developing countries without access to affordable medical care.

History

Watsi was the first nonprofit funded by seed accelerator Y Combinator. They have also been funded by the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation.
In November 2015 the company announced a $3.5M growth round of donations led by 12 investors including Paul Graham, Tencent, and The Pershing Square Foundation.
Medical partners included Nyaya Health, Dr. Rick Hodes, Wuqu' Kawoq, Children's Surgical Centre, CURE International, African Mission Healthcare Foundation, Hope for West Africa, Project Muso, Lwala Community Alliance, Living Hope Haiti, Floating Doctors, Burma Border Projects, Partner for Surgery, International Care Ministries, The Kellermann Foundation, and World Altering Medicine.
In 2016, Wasti partnered with Patientco, a healthcare payment technology company, to fund medical procedures throughout the world.

Process

The medical partner identifies a patient that needs low-cost, high-impact medical care and submits the profile to Watsi. If the profile meets the criteria, Watsi accepts it and guarantees the medical partner that they will cover the cost of providing care to that patient. Watsi posts the profile online, donors browse the profile and fund it via PayPal or a credit card donation, and the medical partner provides care to the patient.
After the treatment is provided, the medical partner sends Watsi an update about the outcome of the treatment. After receiving the update, Watsi sends it to the donors who supported that patient and transfers the funds to the medical partner's bank account to cover the cost of the treatment.
In 2014, Watsi's old logo, which had a blue cross with a white triangle, was the subject of a trademark suit from the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, leading the company to change their logo to white triangles on a blue circle.