Health Firm Scores With Dating App

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Sometimes awkward situations can become great business opportunities.

Case in point: West Hollywood’s Tinder got into a public spat last year with the AIDS Healthcare Foundation over billboards the Hollywood nonprofit posted linking the dating app to sexually transmitted diseases.

The tiff ended in January when Tinder agreed to add a Health Safety section to its website and a free STD testing site locator run by Healthvana Inc. of West Hollywood, a patient engagement platform for large health care providers.

While Healthvana won’t make any money off the deal, Chief Executive Ramin Bastani said it’s helped raise the startup’s profile.

“It helps tremendously with credibility,” Bastani said.

His firm generates revenue by contracting with health care companies, such as the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, to handle electronic patient intake at clinics and deliver online test results and educational information.

Annual contracts run between six and seven figures depending on the clinic size, number of locations, volume of patients and software integrations required, he said. Based on newly signed contracts, Healthvana is on track to be in 80 locations by next year and it just became profitable in the last few months, he added.

Bastani said Healthvana has no financial arrangement whatsoever with AHF or Tinder for the deal on the dating app.

Similar to its unpaid work with Tinder, Healthvana runs a partnership with the Los Angeles Unified School District directing students to STD testing locations on campuses.

“We’re now associated with the biggest dating app in the world, the biggest HIV-AIDS organization in the world and the second-biggest school district (in the nation),” Bastani said. “As a business, it’s pretty powerful to be aligned with several multibillion-dollar organizations.”

– Marni Usheroff

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