Digital health scale-up Liva Healthcare is targeting aggressive UK growth following a €24.5m funding round.
A European market leader in scalable digital health coaching, it was founded in 2015 by the team behind independent health information portal NetDoctor.com, a frontrunner in digital healthcare since 1998.
Its mission is to improve the lives of people at risk of, or living with, chronic conditions such as Type 2 diabetes, obesity and heart diseases by driving positive behavioural change.
Liva’s tech team is headquartered in Copenhagen while it has employees focused on partnerships, business development and operations in London.
Its largest client in the UK is NHS England, acting as a partner on its world-leading National Diabetes Prevention Programme.
It also works with AXA Health and several local CCGs and councils.
“We have approximately 45 full-time staff in the company currently, with around one fifth based in London,” co-founder and chairman Rune Bech told BusinessCloud.
“We are looking to hire in London in the coming months… as a scale-up company, we’re pretty aggressive and expect rapid growth over the coming five years.”
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has led to a significant shift in acceptance of remote healthcare by European consumers, which led to a significant increase in interest in Liva from public healthcare providers and life science companies in 2020.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has brought innovative health tech solutions into focus, particularly video conferencing and remote ways of delivering patient care,” explained Bech. “As COVID-19 disproportionately impacts those living with chronic conditions, it has galvanised our company’s historical mission to treat and prevent chronic lifestyle conditions, like Type 2 diabetes and obesity, through scalable digital health coaching.
“Supporting patients with their health remotely has never been more critical. In this new reality, many are realising the potential of digital platforms like ours.”
Bech says Brexit has had little impact upon its plans. “As an international business working across seven countries, we have seen little impact from the UK’s exit from the European Union.
“We have always aligned our processes with every state and country, so the barriers have not increased, nor decreased. As the two powers diverge in the future, there may be more rules to follow, but this yet to be fully realised.”
The company says the new funding round, led by Verlinvest, will enable Liva to take full advantage of this momentum and enlarge its European footprint and operations. It anticipates a Series C round in 2022.
“This is a major leap for us. Verlinvest will help us to accelerate our ambitious growth plans,” said Bech, also a co-founder of NetDoctor.
“Verlinvest has an impressive track record of enabling successful consumer brands to grow rapidly across geographies and channels.”
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