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Panacea Financial offers specialized banking, lending, and advisory services for medical professionals. Its platform provides tailored personal and business accounts, high-yield savings, PRN personal loans, student loan refinancing, and practice financing. This focused approach aligns financial solutions with the distinct career stages of doctors, dentists, and veterinarians.
Michael Jerkins, MD, M.Ed., and Ned Palmer, MD, MPH, co-founded Panacea Financial. Their frustrations during medical training and residency revealed traditional banks ignored healthcare professionals' unique financial needs. As physicians, the founders recognized this gap, building a dedicated financial ecosystem for their medical peers.
Panacea Financial serves healthcare practitioners across all career stages, from training to practice ownership. Its vision is to be the trusted financial partner, simplifying complex decisions for professionals. The company empowers individuals with purpose-built tools for confident financial management, enabling primary focus on patient care.
Panacea Financial has raised $62.0M across 2 funding rounds.
Panacea Financial has raised $62.0M in total across 2 funding rounds.
Panacea Financial is a financial technology company, operating as a division of Primis Financial Corp. (NASDAQ: FRST), that provides specialized banking and lending solutions exclusively for physicians, medical students, residents, and attendings across all 50 U.S. states, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico.[1][2][3] It offers products like personal loans up to $75,000 (funded in 24 hours at rates below credit cards), student loan refinancing without cosigner or income limits, commercial loans, free checking with nationwide ATM fee waivers, high-yield savings, and 24/7 live support—all tailored to address the unique financial challenges of medical professionals, such as high student debt and irregular early-career income.[3][5] Backed by Primis Bank, Panacea has raised over $62 million in Series B funding (including $24.5M in 2024 and $37M+ in 2025), signaling strong growth momentum in the fintech space for healthcare pros.[1][4]
The company's mission is to improve doctors' lives by delivering needs-based financial services built by physicians who understand their pain points, from training to practice ownership.[2][3] This focus has driven partnerships like with the Arkansas Medical Society and investments in tech for scalability, positioning Panacea as a digital-first disruptor in physician banking.[3][5]
Panacea Financial was officially launched on November 1, 2020, founded by physicians Michael Jerkins, MD, M.Ed. (President and Co-Founder) and Ned Palmer, MD, MPH (COO and Co-Founder), who identified a critical gap: traditional banks misunderstood doctors' financial needs during training and early careers, often undervaluing them as customers due to deferred income and high debt.[2][3][6] Jerkins and Palmer, drawing from their own experiences, envisioned tailored products and recruited Tyler Stafford—a former bank equity research analyst with deep industry insight—as CEO to execute the vision.[2]
Stafford joined full-time, leaving his role to lead operations, while the team partnered with Primis Bank, a publicly traded institution with billions in assets and a focus on innovation, to provide the banking backbone.[1][2] Early development took nearly three years and $3.5 million, fueled by the founders' shared frustrations and a commitment to physician-centric service.[2][3] Pivotal traction came from exclusive offerings for groups like the Arkansas Medical Society, building a foundation for nationwide expansion.[5]
Panacea's edge lies in its physician-led design, solving pain points ignored by generic banks:
These features create a "bank by doctors, for doctors" model, outperforming undifferentiated competitors.[2][6]
Panacea rides the fintech democratization wave in healthcare finance, targeting a $1T+ U.S. physician debt market amid rising med school costs and clinician shortages.[3][6] Timing is ideal post-2020, as digital banking surged during the pandemic, enabling remote services for mobile residents and rural docs—markets traditional banks underserved.[2] Favorable forces include regulatory tailwinds for embedded finance, Primis's stability amid bank consolidations, and VC interest (e.g., Valar Ventures), fueling Series B extensions into 2025.[1][4]
It influences the ecosystem by strengthening physician pipelines—via debt relief and practice loans—boosting underrepresented minorities and overall med workforce resilience, while modeling niche fintech for pros like dentists/vets.[3][5]
Panacea is poised for explosive growth, leveraging 2025's $37M+ Series B to invest heavily in AI-driven personalization and expansion beyond physicians (e.g., vets, dentists).[1][3][4] Trends like rising healthcare labor demands, AI in lending, and neobank adoption will accelerate its "bank of choice" goal, potentially capturing 10-20% of U.S. docs via viral physician networks.[1][2] Influence may evolve through acquisitions or IPO synergy with Primis, redefining pro banking—proving specialized fintech delivers where incumbents fail, just as its doctor-founders set out to do.[2][6]
Panacea Financial has raised $62.0M in total across 2 funding rounds.
Panacea Financial's investors include Valar Ventures, DST Global, Presight Capital, Jan Beckers, Mato Peric, Philipp Freise.
Panacea Financial has raised $62.0M across 2 funding rounds. Most recently, it raised $37.0M Series B in July 2025.
| Date | Round | Lead Investors | Other Investors | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 1, 2025 | $37M Series B | Valar Ventures | DST Global, Presight Capital, JAN Beckers, Mato Peric, Philipp Freise | Announced |
| Jan 1, 2024 | $25M Series B | Valar Ventures | DST Global, Presight Capital, JAN Beckers, Mato Peric, Philipp Freise | Announced |
