Sabadell Asabys invests in 'healthtech' Sidekick

The Icelandic startup Sidekick, specialized in digital health therapies, has closed a Series B round of nearly 52 million euros (about 55 million dollars). The round was led by the London investment firm Novator Ventures, along with the participation of venture capital firms Sabadell Asabys, Wellington Partners, and Frumtak Ventures. The operation also included the entry of a strategic US corporate.

With offices in Berlin, Boston, Reykjavik, and Stockholm, Sidekick is dedicated to developing and providing digital health therapies, which are characterized by being personalized and based on scientific evidence. The potential client they aim for are chronic patients with more than one condition.

"Sidekick clearly reflects the vision we have at Asabys about the possibility of creating digital therapies based on scientific evidence, which have a real impact on patients' health, analogous to a traditional pharmacological treatment. Sidekick, furthermore, is proving capable of generating value for the main stakeholders in the health sector, including large pharmaceutical companies and insurance companies, who are willing to enter into long-term commercial agreements with Sidekick to use this technology. With this round, the company will have resources to continue scaling at high speed," say Clara Campàs and Guillem Masferrer from Asabys.

With the pandemic and the generalization of digitalization, Sidekick is experiencing rapid growth, so the company now seeks to diversify its portfolio by expanding treatments for chronic diseases in therapeutic areas, strengthening existing agreements, and creating new alliances with actors in the healthcare ecosystem.

In recent years, the healthtech company has closed agreements with healthcare sector companies such as the US health insurance company Anthem Inc., as well as with pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer and Bayer. On the other hand, during the peak of the pandemic, Sidekick helped the Government of Iceland by providing a remote triage, monitoring, and management solution for people affected by covid-19. Shortly after, the company raised a Series A of 18.8 million euros (20 million dollars) led by Asabys Partners and Wellington Partners.

Following the closing of the Series B financing round, Novator Ventures partner and founder, Birgir Mar Ragnarsson, joins Sidekick's board of directors, currently composed of Clara Campàs (director and co-founder of Sabadell Asabys), and Regina Hodits (Wellington Partners), as well as the company's chairman, Steve Auerbach, and its CEO, Tryggvi Thorgeirsson.