Practice staffing · Loan-linked clinician hiring
Clasp
Clasp is a Boston fintech that connects healthcare employers with clinical students before graduation and repays student loans over time as long as the clinician stays employed.
Strong fit
- Health systems fighting first-job turnover among nurses and allied clinicians
- Employers willing to commit multi-year loan repayment instead of only sign-on bonuses
- Talent teams that want to engage students 12 to 24 months before graduation
Weak fit
- Facilities that only need per diem shift fill
- Buyers that will not fund student loan benefits
- Organizations outside clinical roles Clasp supports
Bottom line
Clasp replaces short-term sign-on bonuses with loan-linked hiring so clinicians have a reason to stay. It raised a $20 million Series B in March 2026 and says employers have committed more than $130 million in student loan repayment with retention more than 2.5 times traditional hiring. It fits systems redesigning early-career recruiting, not buyers that only need a job board.
Score breakdown
Weights: Outcomes 35% · Product 30% · Implementation 20% · Pricing clarity 15%.
Clasp's buyers are hospitals, health systems, and large clinical employers. Talent and HR leaders use it to recruit students before graduation and fund monthly student loan repayment that continues only while the clinician stays, a model the company calls Retention Over Turnover Costs. Roles listed on its about page include nurses, nurse anesthetists, physical therapists, radiologic technologists, respiratory therapists, dentists, optometrists, and veterinarians.
Employers fund the loan-repayment benefit; pricing for the Clasp platform is by quote. Among companies we review, Incredible Health and Vivian Health help with permanent or marketplace hiring, and IntelyCare focuses on contingent shifts. Clasp's wedge is retention economics tied to education debt.
Tess Michaels founded Clasp and is CEO. She has said she started the company during her MBA at Harvard Business School after earlier work in healthcare investment banking and private equity. In March 2026 Clasp announced a $20 million Series B and said employers including Boston Children's Hospital, Northwestern Medicine, Novant Health, Memorial Sloan Kettering, OhioHealth, and UNC Health Appalachian use the platform. Fierce Healthcare covered the round as total funding reaching about $50 million.
The Series B post said nearly half of clinicians leave their first job within two years, that Clasp employers have committed more than $130 million in student loan repayment, and that retention rates are more than 2.5 times traditional hiring models. Clasp has an estimated $10 million in annual revenue.
Independent user reviews of Clasp are limited outside employer case narratives. Public material emphasizes retention metrics, employer logos, and awards such as HR Tech Breakthrough and Startup Boston honors listed on the about page.
What leaders say
What people like
"Everyone uses them, but I hate sign-on bonuses... They reward leaving more than staying." Clasp
"If we want clinicians to stay, we have to build systems that reward staying, not just joining." Clasp
"There are 3 million open clinical roles in the U.S. and $1.7 trillion in student loan debt. These problems fuel each other, and Clasp solves both." Clasp
What people don't like
"Clasp only works when employers budget multi-year loan repayment; groups that will fund only a one-time bonus will not see the retention design." Based on product docs
Where customer reviews couldn't be found, our analysts attempted to give a voice to buyer sentiment, drawing on real information from review sites, forums, and product documentation.
Based on: Clasp homepage, Clasp about page, and Clasp Series B announcement.
Competitor landscape
| Vendor | Overall | Ease of implementation |
|---|---|---|
| Incredible Health | 7.5 | 7.4 |
| Hello Rache | 7.5 | 7.6 |
| Clasp | 7.3 | 7.3 |
| Vivian Health | 7.2 | 7.2 |
| IntelyCare | 7.2 | 6.8 |
Pricing
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Model | Employers fund student loan repayment benefits and pay for the Clasp hiring platform. Pricing is by quote. |
| What usually drives cost | Number of roles, loan-repayment commitment size, and how early student engagement starts. |
| What to ask before you buy | Ask Clasp for retention results by role, what happens when a clinician leaves mid-commitment, and platform fees separate from loan funding. |
Leadership
Recent news
- March 2026: Clasp raised a $20 million Series B to scale loan-linked hiring for clinician retention, and said employers had committed more than $130 million in student loan repayment. Clasp
- 2026: Clasp said it won a Benefits Innovation Award at the HR Tech Breakthrough Awards, according to its about page. Clasp
Methodology
| Weight | Factor | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| 35% | Customer outcomes | Whether buyers get measurable operational or clinical-workflow results after go-live |
| 30% | Product | Capability depth, reliability, and fit for the job the category buys |
| 20% | Implementation | How hard it is to stand up, integrate, train, and stabilize |
| 15% | Pricing clarity | Whether a buyer can model total cost without a mystery quote |
| Label | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Highly recommend | Strong outcomes and product with manageable caveats |
| Recommend | Solid fit for the right buyer; know the tradeoffs |
| Conditional | Only with a specific use case or heavy caveats |
| Not recommended | Avoid for most buyers in this category |
Read our full methodology for how we weight scores and assign recommend labels.