Liazon, which operates the market-leading Bright Choices private health benefits exchange, has closed $18.2 million in new funding from investors to expand nationwide and develop new products. Bessemer Venture Partners and Fidelity Biosciences led the round with follow-on funding from existing investors Bain Capital Ventures and Rand Capital, SBIC.

"The time has come for people, not companies, to choose their own benefits," said Liazon CEO and co-founder Ashok Subramanian. "Our track record has shown that in these challenging economic times, our Bright Choices Exchange enables companies, employees, and carriers to finally win together. Liazon will utilize this new capital to expand our market presence to serve more companies and give more people a better way to buy benefits."

Since its founding in 2007, Liazon has grown rapidly to serve tens of thousands of individuals from more than 2,000 companies nationwide. Liazon has also pioneered private exchanges with leading national and regional providers of health, wealth and protection services. Liazon serves businesses with 10 to 5,000 employees and also manages insurance programs for chambers of commerce, business associations, and other channel partners.

"Liazon is a true innovator in a space that has lacked innovation. More and more we are seeing top insurance carriers and forward thinking companies doing business with Liazon for this reason," said Stephen Kraus, partner at Bessemer, who has joined the Liazon Board of Directors. "With Liazon, we finally feel like there is a path to resolving one of the most challenging issues of our time - spiraling healthcare and benefits costs."

The online Bright Choices Exchange enables employees and their families to buy benefits that fit their individual needs. Through the exchange, employees get access to an array of benefit choices, including a variety of health care plans, health savings and flexible spending accounts, dental, vision, disability, and life insurance, as well as wellness, telemedicine and pet insurance. The Bright Choices Exchange educates employees about coverage options and guides them with decision-support technology to make smarter and more economical benefits selections. The portal has won Best Website awards from Consumer Health World and Web Health Awards.

About Liazon
Founded in 2007, Liazon Corporation operates the market-leading private benefits exchange for small and mid-sized businesses. Its flagship product, the Bright Choices® Exchange, is an online benefits store that is changing the way employers and employees buy benefits. Bright Choices helps employers save money on their healthcare costs by setting predictable budgets while guiding employees to purchase better coverage of health, dental, vision, life and disability benefits. Liazon works with top national and regional insurance providers and supports more than 2,000 businesses nationwide. Liazon has offices in Buffalo, N.Y., New York City and Waltham, MA.

About Bain Capital Ventures
Bain Capital Ventures is the venture and growth affiliate of Bain Capital, headquartered in Boston. Bain Capital Ventures has over $2 billion under management and invests in healthcare, business services, internet, consumer and retail, mobile and software companies across all stages of a company's development. Bain Capital Ventures leverages the consulting and operating backgrounds of its professionals, broad firm resources, and a 28-year heritage of successful investing to partner with entrepreneurs and management teams to build large, profitable businesses that are leaders in their space. Bain Capital's history of investing in venture and growth-stage companies dates back to 1984. Since then, the firm has made over 125 venture and growth-stage investments in companies such as Archer Technologies, DoubleClick, Gartner Group, iPay Technologies, Liberty Dialysis, LinkedIn, MinuteClinic, ProfitLogic, Staples, SolarWinds and Taleo.

About Bessemer Venture Partners
Bessemer Venture Partners is a global venture capital firm with offices in Silicon Valley, Cambridge, Mass., New York, Mumbai and Herzliya, Israel. One of the oldest venture capital practices in the United States, BVP has partnered as an active, hands-on investor in LinkedIn, Celtel, Allscripts, Skype, Staples, IPC The Hospitalist Company, VeriSign and Yelp. More than 100 BVP-funded companies have gone public on exchanges in Canada, India, the U.K. and the United States.

About Fidelity Biosciences
Fidelity Biosciences is a subsidiary of FMR LLC, the parent company of Fidelity Investments, one of the world's leading providers of financial services. For more than 40 years, Fidelity has been a significant presence in the venture capital and private equity industry, investing the firm's own capital since 1969.