New York: Liazon 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 invetors Bain Capital Ventures and Rand Capital, SBIC.

Founded in 2007 by Ashok Subramanian, Timothy Godzich and Alan Cohen, Liazon 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. The company works with top national and regional insurance providers and supports more than 2,000 businesses nationwide. It has offices in Buffalo, New York City and Waltham, MA. It serves business with 10 to 5,000 employees and also manages insurance programs for chambers of commerce, business associates, and other channel partners.

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

Subramanian was formerly an Associate Principal in the New York, NY Office of McKinsey and Company. In his more than five years with the company, he served as a leader in the firm’s healthcare, consumer products, and private equity practices. He is a graduate of Princeton Unviersity, Stanford University and the Stanford Graduate School of Busienss.

“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. With Liazon, we finally feel like there is a path to resolving one of the most challenging issues of our times,” said Stephen Kraus, Partner at Bessemer. Kraus has also joined the company’s Board of Directors.

Bessemer Venture Partners is a global venture capital firm with offices in Silicon Valley, Cambridge, Mass, New York, Mumbai and Harzliya. More than 100 BVP-funded companies have gone IPO in Canada, India, the U.S. and the U.K.

Bain Capital is headquartered in Boston. It 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.