BOSTON– Serial Entrepreneur Ram Sudireddy, who has founded three technology companies with successful exits, has launched his fourth venture, Bento, a Boston-based dental benefits management platform whose mission is to disrupt the dental insurance industry, and in the process help patients, dentists and employers and bring transparency and accessibility.
“Dental insurance is a scam,” Mr. Sudireddy told INDIA New England News. “No doubt. I don’t like it either. Through Bento, we are solving the dental insurance problem.”
He said that regular health insurance coverage, for example, amounts to millions of dollars of coverage for a premium of about $6,000. A Home insurance premium of $2,000 covers $1 million.
“A dental insurance premium of $500 covers only $1,500,” Mr. Sudireddy said.
To watch a brief video interview with Mr. Sudireddy, please click here or on the image below.
Mr. Sudireddy says Bentro brings transparency and efficiency to the dental benefits market. Bento was founded in 2017 by serial entrepreneurs Mr. Sudireddy and Saty Mahajan in response to the numerous and widely varied issues in the dental benefits market.
The company was publicly launched last October after the duo raised $3 million in seed funding. Bento uses a direct reimbursement model that manages everything from appointment to payment, and more importantly, cuts out burdensome insurance companies that get in the way of patient care.
Mr. Sudireddy said that dental patients can save about 30 percent of their cost by simply using Bento app (www.Bento.net).
Mr. Sudireddy and Mr. Mahajan, who prior to founding Bento ran several companies, including CHiL Semiconductor (acquired by International Rectifier), Sanovi (acquired by IBM), and Mustbin (acquired by LifeSite), recognized serious issues with the dental benefits market.
“Employers and dentists deserve better,” Sudireddy, Bento’s CEO and co-founder, said at the launch of the company last October. “We see a real opportunity to shine a light on the dental insurance industry and fix the inefficiencies by building a more transparent platform that gives employers, patients, and dentists a better experience.”
Mr. Mahajan, Bento’s CTO and co-founder, said at the time of the company launch that Bento was looking at this industry from a modern perspective and has created innovations in everything from employer enrollment through dentist payment.
“Our world-class mobile apps and HIPAA-compliant cloud platform are bringing simple and transparent dental benefits experiences to our users. Ultimately, we’re driven to build easy-to-use technology that improves people’s lives,” Mr. Mahajan said.
Mr. Sudireddy said a large number of dentists and customers have already signed up and uploaded the app.
He said as industry is moving towards self-insurance, dentists are also liking the app as patients are able to make and cancel appointments ahead of time. The app allows patients to search dentists by zip codes as well as pricing for different type dental services.
“There is no price transparency at all in the dental care today,” said Mr. Sudireddy. “We’re bringing transparency and affordable access to oral health, and an easy to use technology.”
