Listed technology expansion capital fund manager Bailador (ASX: BTI) has made a $20 million investment in online healthcare platform Updoc.
Bailador has invested in the start-up’s parent company Venture Startups International Pty Ltd.
Launched in 2021, Updoc provides an online platform to connect consumers with registered health practitioners. Through its platform, Updoc offers a range of services including advice, online prescriptions, referrals to specialists, referrals for pathology and medical correspondence.
Users can access the service via a single transaction or take out a monthly subscription. Updoc founders and joint chief executives Dylan Coyne and Clifton Hodgkinson say delivering consultations digitally increases convenience and accessibility for consumers while lowering the cost of treatment and providing medical professionals with opportunities to work more flexibly, which is particularly valuable in regional areas.
They say the company has served more than 200,000 consumers to date making it a leading player in the rapidly growing telehealth market. Bailador’s investment is their first external funding.
Bailador co-founder and managing partner Paul Wilson said: “Australian consumers have wholeheartedly embraced telehealth as an efficient way to access routine health services. We know the digital health space quite well and have had success in that industry segment. Updoc provides an exceptional experience for both patients and health professionals. We are pleased that by making routine doctor interactions more efficient, the sector is helping to ease the pressure on the Australian healthcare system.”
Coyne and Hodgkinson plan to use the new capital to accelerate product development and expand Updoc internationally.
Bailador was an investor in online healthcare platform InstantScripts which was acquired for around $135 million last year. That exit realised Bailador $52 million in cash, an uplift of $20.3 million (25%) to its carrying value. The acquirer of InstantScripts was Wesfarmers (ASX: WES) subsidiary Australian Pharmaceutical Industries.
Image: Bailador managing partner Paul Wilson; he notes the investor has had prior success in the digital health space.