A Phoenix-based concierge nursing startup is on track to double its revenue this year as it continues to grow its platform in the Valley.
Since Navi Nurses launched in 2019, the company's platform has expanded to include more than 110 registered nurses providing a total of 30,000 hours of personalized care to people in their homes after hospitalization and surgery, said Jasmine Bhatti, CEO of Navi Nurses.
“We hit over $2 million in revenue last year and we're on track to double that — at least — this year,” Bhatti told AZ Inno. “Those are huge milestones for me and the company.”
Navi Nurses was one of the 10 winners of the Arizona Innovation Challenge in 2021. It was named one of AZ Inno's Startups to Watch in 2022 and was selected for the Arizona State University and Mayo Clinic MedTech accelerator program last year.
What’s more, Navi Nurses in 2022 landed a $1.5 million grant from the American Nurses Foundation’s Reimagining Nurses Initiative to test and scale the company’s nurse transitional care model in partnership with HonorHealth. It’s in the second year of a study looking at reducing readmissions in hospitals and nurses' responses to the Navi Nurses platform, among other data.
“Winning this grant was really pivotal for us because it's giving us the research that we need to support growth with large systems and hospitals,” Bhatti said. "I'm able to show the value that I provide by reducing readmissions and by increasing nurse happiness, so we can keep nurses working in the hospital.”
Navi Nurses to expand executive team, scale technology
Navi Nurses was co-founded by Bhatti and Ayan Said, both of whom are former Mayo Clinic registered nurses. Said left the company in 2022.
While attending graduate school at Arizona State University, Bhatti provided care to her grandmother who was diagnosed with cancer. That experience inspired her to become a nurse and also highlighted a gap in insurance coverage that people often face for at-home nursing care, she said.
Bhatti spent eight years as a registered nurse before launching Navi Nurses, she said.
“We started booking clients in 2021 and it has been an amazing journey since then,” Bhatti said. “We've been able to double our revenue every single year. We’re building a brand organically and building relationships with people who are referring clients to us. So that's been fantastic.”
The company aims to partner with hospitals, allowing nurses to continue in-home care for patients via the Navi Nurses platform.
“A lot of times nurses build a relationship with that person that comes out (of the hospital) and they become their trusted person,” Bhatti said. "So the next time they go back to the doctor, they bring in our staff. If they're in the hospital, that relationship continues, which is really special and that's why that community aspect to what we're building is so important.”
Navi Nurses, which has a team of four employees, is focusing on scaling its technology and growing its workforce. It may consider opening a funding round in the near future to assist in its growth, Bhatti said.
"We're looking to expand our core executive team and other leadership responsibilities, so just thinking about doubling or tripling our headcount alone — that's going to be a really big milestone for us this year," she said.
