London-based startup Medbelle has raised a a $7 million Series A financing round to build out its technology, which is intended to digitize management of the patient’s healthcare journey.
The funding round was led by Signals Venture Capital and included participation by Talis Capital, Mutschler Ventures, IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft and Cavalry Ventures.
The Funding Model for Cancer Innovation is Broken — We Can Fix It
Closing cancer health equity gaps require medical breakthroughs made possible by new funding approaches.
“Major digital platforms improve customer experience in almost all industries, however, in healthcare, the digitization of patient journeys has been heavily lagging behind until now,” Signals Venture Capital’s Clemens
Koós said in a statement.
“Medbelle’s technology and personalised care enable much simpler and more affordable medical treatments – while allowing healthcare providers to efficiently focus on treating patients.”
The company allows users to book consultations and appointments with specialist surgeons for procedures like cataract surgery, breast enlargement and weight loss surgery.
The startup claims to curate a network of top surgeons in its U.K. service area and touts itself as bringing more “transparency” to the healthcare system by giving patients upfront pricing information to guide their choices.
Transforming Patient Care: The Role of AI-Powered Assistants
The progress in artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping patient care, across various dimensions, from facilitating faster discharge to curating treatment plans and suggesting lifestyle changes.
Medbelle also acts as a portal for a patient’s healthcare journey by helping them to choose and communicate with their provider and educate them about preparations for the procedure, as well as aftercare. The platform also links patients to a care advisor who helps guide them through their healthcare event.
From the provider end, Medbelle provides digital practice management tools to ease administrative burden and allow clinicians to follow patients from consultation to billing to follow-up and post-operative care.
According to the company, 30,000 patients in the U.K. have used the company’s platform for their treatments.
Currently, the company only focused on self-funded procedures in specialties like cosmetics, bariatrics and ophthalmology.
Moving forward, Medbelle said it hopes to expand into orthopedics and fertility treatments and eventually work with the U.K.’s National Health Service and private and public health plans to broaden its service to more procedures.
“The new capital will accelerate the development of our platform while growing Medbelle’s operating footprint,” Medbelle co-founder Daniel Kolb said in a statement.
“It will allow us to streamline high-quality care at scale and take even more work off the hospitals’ and specialists’ shoulders.”
Photo: abluecup, Getty Images