Two entrepreneurs who experienced both the highs and lows of NHS care have raised £2.1 million in pre-seed funding to build Asterix Health.
The workforce solution hires UK-registered GPs to support primary care remotely through a proprietary technology platform.
Julian Titz and Max Thilo founded the company in 2024 after both navigating serious health conditions. Max was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and Julian is currently awaiting surgery for a bicuspid aortic valve repair.
Frustrated by lack of access to timely and preventative care caused by chronic workforce shortages, and the downstream impact on patients, the two founders — who met on the Entrepreneurs First programme in London — decided to solve the problem.
The funding will be used to accelerate onboarding of new NHS practices and expand Asterix’s network of remote GMC-registered GPs, including NHS-trained doctors who are eager to return to frontline care from abroad.
They say this new approach provides the NHS access to global talent, 24/7 coverage and increased productivity, and has already been referenced in the NHS 10 Year Plan (NHS England).
“For the first time in decades we are actually growing the pie — increasing the number of highly qualified GPs available to deliver primary care rather than simply moving existing GPs around the country,” said Titz.
“Our early partners are already seeing significant productivity gains and reallocating the saved time into new proactive care services for patients as a result.”
Since 2015, the number of patients per fully qualified GP has risen by 15% (RCGP), while 2 in 3 doctors say they have considered working abroad (GMC).
Asterix is the first and only company approved under new NHS regulation to hire GMC-registered GPs based abroad. Today, Asterix GPs support practices serving 250,000 patients with time-consuming clinical admin and telephone consultation tasks, via its proprietary DoctorOS platform.
The DoctorOS integrates with Electronic Patient Record Systems including EMIS and SystmOne to give GPs better access to patient information and solve the context problem.
Asterix recently expanded its clinical leadership team with the appointment of Dr Mike Bewick. Dr Bewick is a former deputy medical director of NHS England responsible for primary care, and led implementation of the Revalidation and Appraisal programme during his tenure.
Dr Bewick, strategic medical lead at Asterix Health, said: “The NHS has the talent – it just needs the infrastructure to deploy it properly. Asterix has built that. There are thousands of GMC-registered GPs who left not because they wanted to stop practising, but because the system didn’t work for them.
“I joined Asterix as they are creating a more sustainable workforce that meets the needs of modern primary care, with a relentless focus on quality and governance.”
Asterix’s model frees up valuable GP time – typically one GP session per practice per day – whilst patient care continues to be delivered by highly-qualified GPs.
To date, over 3,000 hours of care have been delivered. Wider adoption of its model could deliver annual savings of £250–300m to UK primary care, the firm claims.
The raise has attracted backing from leading investors and supporters who see Asterix as a systemic answer to the UK’s primary care workforce crisis.
Matt Clifford, co-founder & non-executive chair of Entrepreneurs First, said: “Julian and Max are exactly the kind of founders EF exists for — people who’ve lived the problem and have the depth to fix it at scale.
“The NHS workforce crisis isn’t going away, and this is the most credible solution I’ve seen. Asterix has the potential to be a defining company in UK HealthTech.”
Jamie Tomalin, investor at Triple Point, said: “Every time healthcare gets more productive, demand grows to meet it. Unfortunately, there’s no fixed amount of medicine to be done.
“Asterix is unlocking a pool of brilliant doctors who couldn’t otherwise reach NHS patients, and creating a new model of care that unlocks the capacity expansion the system actually needs.
“Asterix is taking a meaningful step towards greater healthcare abundance in the UK.”