INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Swedish telehealth startup Kryhas closed a $66 million Series B funding round led byIndex Ventures,with participation from existing
investorsAccel,Creandum, andProject A.
It raised a $22.8M Series A round just over a year ago, bringing its total raised since being founded
back in 2014 to around $92M.
The new funding will be put towards market expansion, with the UK and French markets its initial targets
It also says it wants to deepen its penetration inexisting markets: Sweden, Norway and Spain, and to expandits medical offering to be able
to offer more services via the remote consultations.
A spokesperson forKry also tells us it exploring different business models.
While the
initial Kry offering requires patients to pay per video consultation this may not offer the best approach to scale the business in a market
like the UK where healthcare is free at the point of use, as a result of the taxpayer-funded National Health Service.
&Our goal is to offer
our service to as many patients as possible
We are currently exploring different models to deliver our care and are in close discussions with different stakeholders, both public and
private,& a spokesperson told us.
&Just as the business models will vary across Europe so will the price,& he added.
While consultations
are conducted remotely, via the app video platform — with Kry pitch being tech-enabled convenience and increased accessibility to
qualified healthcare professionals, i.e
thanks to the app-based delivery of the service — it specifies that doctors are always recruited locally in each market where it
operates.
In terms of metrics, it says it had around 430,000 user registrations to date, and that some 400,000 &patients meetings& have been
conducted so far (to be clear that not unique users, as it says some have been repeat consultations; and some of the 430k registrations are
people who have not yet used the service).
Across its first three European markets it also says the service grew by 740% last year, and it
claims it now accounts for more than 3% of all primary care doctor visits in Sweden — where it has more than 300 clinicians working in the
service.
In March this year it alsolaunched an online psychology service and says it now the largest provider of CBT-treatments in
Sweden.
Commenting on the funding in a statement, Martin Mignot, partner at Index Ventures, said: &Kryoffers a unique opportunity to deliver
a much improved healthcare to patients across Europe and reduce the overall costs associated with primary care.Kryhas already become a
household name in Sweden where regulators have seen first-hand how it benefits patients and allowedKryto become an integral part of the
We are excited to be working with Johannes and his team to bringKryto the rest of Europe.&
As well as the app being the conduit for a video
consultation between doctor and patient, patients must also describe in writing and input their symptoms into the app, uploading relevant
pictures and responding tosymptom-specific questions.
During the video call with a Kry doctor, patients may also receive prescriptions for
medication, advice, referral to a specialist, or lab or home tests with a follow-up appointment — with prescribed medication and home
tests able to be delivered to the patient homewithin two hours, according to the startup.
&We have users from all age groups
Our oldest patient just turned 100 years old
One big user group is families with young children but we see that usage is becoming more even over different age groups,& adds the
spokesman.
There are now a number of other startups seeking to scale businesses in the video-call-a-doctor telehealth space — such as Push
Doctor, in the UK, and Doctor On Demand in the US, to name two.
