Polish telemedicine company Telemedico has closed a Series A funding round of €5.5 million to expand the functionalities of its SaaS platform. The platform offers services including chat, video and telephone consultations with a doctor, AI-powered triaging, medical data storage and an online booking system for in-person appointments and blood tests.
The funding was led by Flashpoint Venture Capital and Uniqa Ventures, with further investment from PKO VC, existing investor Black Pearls VC and Adamed.
WHAT IT DOES
The company offers a comprehensive, customisable telehealth service, offering modular solutions for B2B users such as medical entities, insurers, healthcare systems and pharmaceutical companies.
The platform is easily integrated into companies’ existing IT systems and is already used by the likes of AXA, Allianz, Generali and Metrored. Telemedico hails itself as the only “plug and play” platform for insurance companies, offering a white-label service to a sector which may be resistant to digital-first alternatives.
WHAT IT’S FOR
The funding will help Telemedico expand operations and support its continued growth. The company reportedly facilitated over one million consultations on its platform over the course of 2020 and are expecting an estimated 250,000 monthly consultations by the end of this year, a significant increase in traffic since the company opened in 2014.
The company is expecting to double their staff this year to keep up with growth and will be adding to the platform’s supported languages and launching in new markets.
MARKET SNAPSHOT
Telemedicine globally had a hugely successful year in 2020, driven by the necessity of remote health options due to the pandemic. As such, there has been a cultural shift towards telehealth adoption and investment, with, for example. eVisit scoring $14m in October. Nevertheless, usage is expected to even out as the threat of the pandemic lessens, though overall adoption will be higher than pre-COVID times.
ON THE RECORD
CEO Pawel Sieczkiewicz said: “Telemedico is primarily a B2B company. The majority of our business comes from recurring enterprise customers, such as insurance companies, banks, pharmacies and other companies who either offer health services and want to improve them with a digital layer or want to offer health services to their digital offering.
“We provide our enterprise customers with a platform they can customise to meet their needs and a network of over 600 doctors who speak 10 languages that they can mix with their own network. We help our customers strengthen their value chain, so they can stand up against digital-first insurance companies who have been emerging for the last couple of years.”
Highlighting the advantages of Telemedico over its main competitors Babylon Health, Kry and Pushdoctor, Sieczkiewicz said: “One major drawback for insurers using the Babylon-style setup is that in the future, Babylon might be able to begin offering insurance cover directly to consumers, cutting out the original insurance companies themselves — similar to how digital-first insurance companies like Oscar Health operate.”
Commenting on their investment, Michael Szalontay of Flashpoint VC said: “We are convinced that telemedicine will become a primary distribution channel for medical services in the next decade and Telemedico is poised to become a European leader in this domain. We are proud to become Pawel’s partner in Telemedico, he has an amazing energy and conviction, and in our experience, such gumption is a prerequisite for success.”
