Doccla delivers remote patient monitoring solutions to free up hospital beds and help alleviate pressures on the NHS
Sweden-founded and London-headquartered, Doccla, the leading provider to the NHS of virtual ward and patient monitoring technology, has today announced it has closed a £15 million Series A funding round.
The oversubscribed round was led by International venture capital firm General Catalyst, with participation from funds managed by healthcare investors KHP Ventures – a collaboration between King’s College London, King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust – as well as existing investors Giant Ventures, who led the seed round, and Speedinvest. Chris Bischoff, Managing Director at General Catalyst, will be joining the board.
Doccla will use the new investment for the development of a tech stack that facilitates the integration of its patient monitoring solutions with more medical devices and electronic healthcare record systems, data analytics and AI, as well as expand clinical capacity and availability in order to meet the increasing demand for virtual hospitals that alleviate pressures on healthcare systems. The company also anticipates forthcoming expansion to new European markets and segments.
Founded in Sweden in 2019 by health and tech entrepreneurs, Martin Ratz and Dag Larsson, Doccla provides a comprehensive remote patient monitoring service which allows clinical staff from hospitals across the UK to monitor the vital signs of those under treatment remotely, either continuously or intermittently. Launched in the UK during the pandemic, Doccla has experienced extraordinary growth: today it is present in 20% of all Integrated Care Systems (ICS) in the UK, with patient intake from 20+ hospitals. Current clients include a number of NHS trusts across the country, including Northampton General Hospital, Cambridgeshire Community Services, and Hertfordshire Community Trust.
The issue of hospital bed shortages in the UK is acute, and the NHS has long been forced to play a balancing act. According to the British Medical Association, the UK – compared to other nations – has a very low total number of hospital beds relative to its population. The average number of beds per 1,000 people in OECD EU nations is 4.6, but the UK has just 2.4. Germany, by contrast, has 7.9.
Doccla’s virtual ward technology enables the early discharge of patients while remaining under the care of clinicians, but also reduces the need for patients with long-term or chronic health conditions to visit hospitals in the first place, thereby minimizing NHS costs and workload pressures. To date, Doccla has already saved thousands of bed days for the NHS and for client health trusts has achieved a 29% reduction in Emergency Admissions and a 20% reduction in A&E attendance. Atypical for the sector, and validating its efficacy, Doccla has received contract extensions from all of its UK clients.
Doccla’s offering consists of a tailor-made box of equipment, which includes pre-configured smartphones that have a large font that is easier to read for those with vision impairments, and wearable medical devices that can measure a wide range of physiological parameters such as heart rate, respiration rate, body temperature, sp02, and blood pressure. As opposed to traditional patient monitoring technology, Doccla supports the entire customer journey by providing an end-to-end solution which covers software integration, logistics and customer service, as well as tech support for the elderly and non-digital natives – therefore differentiating itself from competitors by significantly reducing the workload on hospital staff. With the majority of users being older – and often tech illiterate – patients, Doccla enjoys one of the highest customer-compliance rates in the industry, exceeding 95%.
Martin Ratz, Doccla Founder, comments: “I’m very proud of our team in completing this successful financing round, marking a significant step in Doccla’s vision of making virtual wards a core part of modern healthcare systems. From the company’s beginnings in 2019 we have continued to grow and expand and have received contract extensions from all of our clients, proving the inherent value of Doccla to the healthcare sector. Our combining new technology with a service layer and clinical capacity reduces work for the NHS. We look forward to using this new level of support to further build on our success by getting more hospitals on board and developing our technology and clinical capacity in order to help solve the hospital bed crisis and alleviate the immense pressures on the NHS and other healthcare systems.”
Chris Bischoff, Managing Director at General Catalyst, comments: “The virtualization of hospital wards is a critical step in efficiently expanding health resources and enabling timely, safe transition of care into the home. Doccla has immense potential and is driving real impact by not only providing a much-needed lifeline for overwhelmed hospitals but also improving patient outcomes through remote monitoring. The founders’ vision to drive more digitally-enabled, decentralized healthcare that combines physical and virtual pathways aligns with General Catalyst’s Health Assurance thesis. Importantly, their partnership approach with NHS Trusts echoes our core values of radical collaboration and responsible innovation — innovation that improves society. At General Catalyst, we support companies that bring about powerful, positive change that endures, and we believe Martin, Dag and the team will do just that.”
About Doccla
Doccla is the UK’s leading virtual ward company. We partner with hospitals to enable early discharge and reduced readmission across a wide range of patient groups. Our end to end solution is device agnostic, integrates with local systems, and delivers data driven insights. As an accredited healthcare operator, we provide additional clinical capacity – not just technology – to reduce hospital workload. Our virtual ward service is a market leader in patient compliance and satisfaction. www.doccla.com
About General Catalyst
General Catalyst is a venture capital firm that invests in powerful, positive change that endures — for our entrepreneurs, our investors, our people, and society. We support founders with a long-term view who challenge the status quo, partnering with them from seed to growth stage and beyond to build companies that withstand the test of time. With offices in San Francisco, Palo Alto, New York City, London, and Boston, the firm has helped support the growth of businesses such as: Airbnb, Deliveroo, Guild, Gusto, Hubspot, Illumio, Lemonade, Livongo, Oscar, Samsara, Snap, Stripe, and Warby Parker. For more: www.generalcatalyst.com.
