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Patient21, a four-year-old German startup that incorporates a digital healthcare platform with real-world brick-and-mortar hospitals, has raised €100 million ($108 million) in a Series C round of grant led by Israeli VC firm Pitango, comprising a mix of equity and debt.
Established out of Berlin in 2019, Patient21’s platform traverses the whole patient process, from online bookings via digital case records, check-ins, billing, insurance, and more.
Nevertheless, while telemedicine has been on an upward trajectory in current years, accelerated somewhat by the global pandemic, Patient21’s platform is unique as it doesn’t offer a remote healthcare choice like its U.S. counterpart Carbon Health. Instead, the company has created proprietary software for managing patients and guiding them toward its 50-plus outpatient hospitals throughout Germany.
This is partly because Patient21 is mainly focused on dentistry for the time being, with more than 80% of its clinics presently targeting oral health, with the remainder split between gynecology and GP courses.
“Dentistry naturally requires in-person consultations for complete diagnosis and treatment,” Patient21 co-founder and CEO Chris Muhr informed TechCrunch. “The nature of dentistry affects visually inspecting oral health, utilizing diagnostic tools like x-rays and handling emergencies promptly. These aspects are best served via onsite consultations to guarantee the highest standards of sustenance.”
The business says it’s currently handling more than 300,000 patient visits per year, and it plans to expand to cover additional places of healthcare in the future — at which point it may advance into virtual healthcare.
“As we persist to expand and develop our presence in human medicine, we are vigorously exploring the integration of telehealth answers into our offerings,” Muhr displayed.
It’s worth mentioning that there are multiple factors to Patient21’s software, with the patient-facing app only one side. Clearly, the company also has an app for doctors and a clinic management strategy.
“In a area that is increasingly supply-constrained owing to staff shortages, an aging health workforce and overflows in chronic illnesses, our focus is on sustaining healthcare professionals and making certain their time is used as wisely as possible,” Muhr persisted. “We’ve created a suite of clinic-facing software that accommodates the requirements of our healthcare professionals and local clinics — it liberates our clinical teams up from tedious administrative jobs so that they can concentrate on what they are most promising at: taking care of patients.”
Beneficial business
Patient21 had earlier raised around €66 million ($71 million) in funding, and with its renewed cash injection, it said that it plans to grow its software and extend beyond Germany. “We anticipate to launch in two new European sectors within the next 12 months,” Muhr reported.
Extending physical clinics also instinctively seems like a resource-intensive enterprise, but Muhr said that its clinics have become “operationally advantageous” quite fast.
“As a consequence, we grow with minimal equity investment needed to proceed out new clinics,” he stated. “Thus, most of the funding proceeds towards software development to further improve our platform abilities.”
Moreover, additionally down the road, there could be scope for Patient21 to approve its booking and patient-management software.
“Long-term we accept there will be an opportunity to form alliances or to run clinics in the form of a franchise model, delivering franchisees with software and services offering that is unique in the sector,” Muhr told.
The organization’s Series C round was mostly equity — we’re told “additionally than 70%” — and aside from lead backer Pitango, participants contained PICO Venture Partners, Bertelsmann Investments, Target Global, Artian, Piton Capital, and several angel investors. IPF Partners supplied the debt component.
