A former A&E doctor has raised £11.2 million to bring ‘big city’ healthcare to local clinics.
Oxford-trained former NHS doctor Dr Sonia Szamocki founded 01Health in 2022 after seeing firsthand how specialist healthcare remained concentrated in hospitals and major cities, while the local clinics closest to many patients lacked the infrastructure, oversight, and operational systems needed to deliver more advanced care.
The results of this imbalance are years-long waiting lists, delayed treatment and limited access to specialist expertise.
The Series A round was led by Gresham House Ventures, with follow-on investment from existing backers Balderton Capital, Eka Ventures, and Wavemaker360, alongside angels including Nicolas Cary, co-founder of Blockchain.com.
The investment will support the launch of the 01Health platform across the UK and its introduction to the US – where trials are currently underway and a Head of US commercial operations has been appointed to lead the expansion.
For the first time, practices, practice groups and dental service organisations will be able to license the 01Health platform which, until now, has underpinned the 01Health-owned specialist dental platforms 32Co and Aerox Health.
“The biggest bottleneck in healthcare isn’t cost; it’s access. Specialists are concentrated in a handful of postcodes; patients aren’t,” said Dr Szamocki. “01Health is the infrastructure designed to close that gap.
“32Co and Aerox have already brought expert dental treatments to areas of the UK where such treatments were inaccessible, proving the concept that specialist care could be democratised if the right technology layer existed underneath it.
“Now this technology layer goes live as 01Health, the first of a kind end-to-end platform built to enable clinics and clinicians to launch and scale specialist treatments.
“We are delighted to have received this support from investors who share our vision to make the best healthcare accessible to all, irrespective of location, across the UK and soon the US.”
Greta Anderson, managing director of Balderton Capital, added: “We’re incredibly proud of Sonia and her team as they cross two major milestones, a successful Series A and the launch of the 01Health platform.
“Over the last four years, they’ve built 32Co into the UK’s highest-rated clear aligner provider and successfully expanded from orthodontics into sleep medicine with Aerox Health, both delivered through its network of dentists.
“What stood out to us from the beginning was Sonia’s ambition to build the infrastructure that enables specialist healthcare to be delivered through general practitioner networks at scale, a vision that extended far beyond any single service or practitioner type. Today’s launch marks an important step towards making that vision a reality.”
Zixin Pan, associate director, Gresham House Ventures, commented: “Demand for specialist care continues to grow globally, while access to specialist expertise remains constrained.
“01Health’s platform enables specialist clinicians to support significantly larger networks of general practitioners remotely, creating a highly scalable model for expanding patient access to specialist-led care.
“We are excited to partner with Dr Sonia Szamocki and the team as they continue to scale the platform in the UK and internationally.”