French telehealth provider Doctolib has announced a raise of €500 million in equity and debt funding, taking it to a valuation of €5.8 billion.

Existing investor Eurazeo led the funding round with participation from previous investors Bpifrance and General Atlantic.

According to TechCrunch, the Paris-based firm is now the most valuable French startup.

WHAT IT DOES

Since starting out as an appointment booking and scheduling platform in 2013, Doctolib has added additional services including telemedicine, its ‘Doctolib Team ’instant messaging service, and ‘Doctolib Médecin’, a back-office tool for administrative tasks.

During the COVID pandemic Doctolib ranked among the top three most-used video-consultation services in the world.

In January the firm announced that 300,000 medical professionals in Europe use its monthly €129 per month software as a service (SaaS), including GPs, psychologists, pharmacists and dentists. The company estimates a growth of 100,000 medical users in 2022.

WHAT IT’S FOR

The funding will be used to further fuel Doctolib’s recruitment drive, as part of its ambition to become an indispensable part of the healthcare industry. It plans to take on 3,500 new employees in France, Germany and Italy over the next five years.

MARKET SNAPSHOT

Earlier this year Polish telemedicine startup HigoSense announced the completion of a €5 million Series A funding round for its telemedicine solution. The firm’s artificial intelligence (AI) powered diagnostic platform enables users to perform remote medical tests which are then analysed remotely by physicians.

French startup Lifen scored €58 million last year for its platform which features connection to health data (flow management in hospital information systems and AI to structure health data), secure identity management, and the distribution of solutions to healthcare stakeholders. More than 600 healthcare institutions use Lifen’s services every month. 

Also in 2021, Portuguese startup knok received €4.4 million from the NOS 5G Fund for its telemedicine platform which features video appointments and remote data sharing. The health tech enterprise will invest the funds into further development of its 5G-enabled telehealth solutions.

Meanwhile, British telehealth platform Push Doctor has been acquired by Square Health for an undisclosed sum. The platform provides remote care for more than five million patients via the NHS and private insurers.

ON THE RECORD

Doctolib CEO and cofounder, Stanislas Niox-Chateau, posted on LinkedIn: “It's been almost 10 years since the Doctolib adventure began. Today, we have obtained new funding that will allow us to create 3,500 jobs in the next five years in France, Germany and Italy.

“Thank you to our partners, to our 2,500 employees who work hard every day and to all those who trust us and make possible this human adventure at the service of caregivers and access to care for all. I appreciate how fortunate we are to work in health, to develop useful and used services, to create jobs and to participate in the definition, I hope, of a humanistic approach to health innovation and business.”