In the coronavirus crisis, digital health has been one of the clear beneficiaries, after the need to invest in this sector became evident. The Barcelona-based Top Doctors is an example. The company offers a directory of specialist doctors in private healthcare and guides patients to find the right professional according to their symptoms.
With COVID, the inquiries it receives to find doctors have skyrocketed. If in 2019 it registered a total of 50 million, this figure already doubled during 2020, with 100 million, and will close this year also doubling and reaching up to 200 million.
Given this growth, the startup has just closed a round of 11.2 million euros (13 million dollars), the largest in its history and also one of the highest in the digital health sector in Spain. It has been led by the French venture capital firm Impact Partners. The Institut Català de Finances (ICF) has also participated, through its venture capital fund ICF Venture Tech II, aimed at technology companies with high potential and endowed with 20 million euros, with amounts per operation ranging between 500,000 euros and two million euros.
With this round, Top Doctors has raised more than 17 million euros (20 million dollars) since its creation in 2013. Its first round was 400,000 euros and had the support of Castle Connolly Medical, a US medical directory company. The second was for 1.1 million euros (2015), in which Castle Connolly Medical repeated and Inveready and the Col·legi d'Enginyers Industrials de Catalunya were added, while the third was three million euros (2017), with the Russian fund Addventure. The fourth was in 2019 for 1.4 million, with the participation of the All Iron fund.
With positive cash flow and EBITDA since 2019, Top Doctors could continue operating without raising more resources, but the company wanted to take advantage of the current moment in the sector to accelerate its growth, explains the CEO of Top Doctors, Alberto Porciani. The resources that the company has obtained in what has been its fifth round will serve to boost the markets where it operates. Specifically, the startup is present in Spain, the United Kingdom, Italy, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Argentina, and Saudi Arabia.
To reinforce its presence in these countries, especially in Spain, the United Kingdom, Italy, and Mexico, Porciani indicates that the startup will expand its current workforce of 250 employees with 100 more during the next year. They will seek sales and customer service professionals and developers.
The latter will focus on another business line of Top Doctors, which also provides technology to doctors and healthcare centers to digitize their services, such as scheduling appointments. The company wants to focus on designing specific programs for large hospitals and laboratories, with the aim of completing its offering. All in all, the firm expects to exceed a turnover of 13.4 million euros (16 million dollars) this 2021, between 30 and 40% more than a year ago.
Mediktor also benefits
Top Doctors is not the only digital health company benefiting from the good moment the sector is experiencing. Mediktor, also from Barcelona, has just closed a round of 11 million euros. The startup offers an artificial intelligence tool that assists healthcare professionals to facilitate medical triage.
Mediktor's round has been led by the Swiss fund MTIP and the Barcelona-based venture capital firm Alta Life Sciences has also participated. Since its founding in 2011, Mediktor has raised a total of 16 million euros.