Healthtech AI start-up Medopad raises $28m Series A

Medopad, a London-headquartered AI healthtech business, has raised $28m worth of Series A finance in a funding round led by China’s NWS Holdings.

Looking to raise $120m over the coming months, the latest installment of funding will help Medopad to continue its international expansion – which will create 500 UK jobs by 2020.

Also based in Singapore and Munich, Medopad’s data-capture platform connects patients and healthcare professionals in real time, allowing them to transmit data via smartphones, smart watches, and smart asthma inhalers.

By improving the communication channels between patients and healthcare professionals, Medopad hopes to increase the chances of early intervention for life threatening diseases and make operational procedures more efficient – thereby driving overall costs down.

The start-up’s primary customers include hospitals, pharma companies, insurance companies and governments – with strategic partnerships with Royal Free NHS Hospital, Ping An Good Doctor, China Resources, Tencent, HP, Lenovo, Johns Hopkins University, Imperial College Health Partners and Peking University already in place.

The news follows the announcement of a series of trade deals worth more than £100m secured by the company, which were announced during prime minister Theresa May’s recent meetings with president Xi of China – with Medopad part of the trade delegation to Beijing and Shanghai

In addition to the Series A funding announcement, Medopad has also appointed healthcare industry experts Stuart Fletcher and Simon MacKinnon OBE as non-executive directors.

Fletcher served as CEO of BUPA Group between 2012 and 2016, and was president of Diageo International between 2004-2011, while MacKinnon is currently chairman of Sinophi Healthcare.

Dan Vahdat, CEO of Medopad, said:

“We now have several amazing strategic investors in the business, which is a great achievement for us as we gear for significant growth and scale our business. Managing population health is one of the greatest challenges for governments across the world.

“As such, the investment appetite for solutions that address and manage this concern is substantial. We are proud to be at the forefront of solving this problem and supporting people around the world.”

“We will be opening a number of offices across the world and hiring the most talented people as we grow our regional partnerships.

“Our mission at Medopad is to help patients suffering from the most complicated diseases receive better care and live longer and healthier lives with their loved ones.”

Brian Cheng, executive director at NWS Holdings, said:

“Modern medical advancements are at a stage where prediagnostics and analytics for disease prevention are as prevalent and important as ever before.

“Medopad is already well positioned to capture this growing demand through its continuous involvement with rare disease patients and helping medical institutions treat patients in a more efficient and cost effective manner.

“We believe Medopad will succeed in revolutionising the current convoluted methods of disease treatment and prevention into a more succinct ecosystem with the development of its artificial intelligence and big data gathering capabilities.”