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What You Should Know:
– Meroka, a company focused on restoring humanity in healthcare, has publicly launched with a $6M in seed funding round led by Better Tomorrow Ventures and Slow Ventures, with participation from 8VC and other investors.
– Meroka’s unique approach combines an employee ownership model with technology that reduces the administrative burden of running a practice. The company’s mission is to help independent care teams focus on what they do best: caring for patients.
Rise of Corporate Consolidation
In the last decade, corporate consolidation has become a common path for investors, with private equity firms acquiring more than 5,000 physician practices since 2012. This has led to concerns about provider burnout, reduced autonomy, and deteriorating patient trust. Meanwhile, the number of physicians working in independently owned practices has fallen to 42%.
The Employee Ownership Model
Meroka’s platform is designed to help independent practices transition to an employee ownership model, where everyone, from physicians to front desk staff, can earn a meaningful stake in the business over time. Ownership is based on tenure and contribution, which gives team members a real voice in the future of the practice. This approach is intended to strengthen engagement, support long-term retention, and keep the practice in the hands of the people and communities it serves.
Meroka’s all-in-one platform supports various practice operations, including billing, staffing, compliance, data, and recruiting. The company has already partnered with early adopters, such as Dr. Maria Sophocles, a nationally recognized OB/GYN, who selected Meroka to support her women’s health practice. Dr. Sophocles noted that partnering with Meroka gave her “the joy of practicing medicine on my terms and the time to focus on what matters most”.
“Independent doctors are some of the most entrepreneurial and mission-driven professionals out there,” said Alex Barrett, CEO of Meroka. “But too often, they are forced to spend more time managing vendors and paperwork than leading their teams and caring for patients. We built Meroka to give them the support and ownership structure they deserve, so they can keep building the kind of care they believe in and keep their practices in the hands of their teams and communities.”
