Prolucent Health, which offers a healthcare jobs marketplace and recruiting services, raised $11.5 million in Series A funding.

The round was led by SpringTide Ventures and Health Velocity Capital, with participation from UnityPoint Health Ventures.

WHAT IT DOES

Prolucent offers recruiting and workforce management services for employers, as well as an online job-search marketplace for healthcare workers.

Its workforce tools for employers include services to help find successful job candidates and increase the number of people who apply, management tools to cut back on agency or outsourced labor and overtime, and data on labor utilization and costs.

WHAT IT’S FOR

The healthcare staffing and recruiting company plans to use the funds to hire across its sales, marketing and client services divisions, and to add new capabilities to its products. 

“With an intensifying labor shortage further fueled by COVID-related issues and worsening due to the changing needs of workers, there is an urgent need for cost-effective and sustainable workforce solutions that streamline how hospitals and health systems connect with, access and manage the talent they need,” Bruce Springer, cofounder and CEO of Prolucent Health, said in a statement.

“Our investors share our vision for building more transparent, intelligent healthcare workforce solutions that reduce overall labor costs for health systems. Their proven track record of investment success will be invaluable in advancing Prolucent’s mission."

MARKET SNAPSHOT

Healthcare staffing and recruitment is a growing concern as COVID-19 increased pressure on the workforce and exacerbated clinician shortages, straining hospital margins. 

A Moody's Investor Service report from this fall found insufficient staffing in some areas in the U.S. has spread beyond clinical staff to other workers, like those in dietary and environmental services. The increased demand due to COVID-19 has also increased worker salaries and pushed hospitals to use more contract workers. 

The Association of American Medical Colleges predicts the U.S. could see an estimated shortage of between 37,800 and 124,000 physicians by 2034. Meanwhile, in 2018 the average age of registered nurses was 50, signaling an increase in retirements in the coming years. 

Other companies in the healthcare staffing space include Nomad Health, Trusted Health and connectRN, which announced a $76 million raise last week.