PatchAi closes a €1,7 million round to scale internationally
The new financing round divided into two tranches respectively led by UV Cap and SFEM Italia will allow PatchAi to increase its positive impact on patient behaviour and to further position itself as a reliable digital health provider on an international scale.
PatchAi, the Italian digital health startup that aims to improve clinical research through its focus on patient engagement, closes a €1,7 million round divided into two tranches respectively led by UV Cap and SFEM Italia, joined by a follow-on investment from Healthware Ventures.
This is the 3rd round closed by the Padua-based startup accelerated in Silicon Valley by Plug and Play, for a total of 2,56 million euro raised in just 2 years since the founding date. A noteworthy result if we consider that in Italy, according to a recent report by Dealroom (Dealroom, 2020), only four other Italian startups in the health tech industry raised € 5,2 million in investment collectively. The funds raised will allow PatchAi to expand its business to other therapeutic areas and scale internationally.
PatchAi’s solution entered the market in late 2019 and made major strides in 2020 in part due to emerging needs that arose from the Covid-19 pandemic. PatchAi is now available not only for digitalizing clinical studies but also for standard clinical practice through their offering for Patient Support Programs (PSPs).
PatchAi has developed an empathetic virtual companion that uses artificial intelligence to personalize the dialogue with patients and collect Conversational Patient Reported Outcomes (Co-PRO®). By adopting a patient-oriented approach, PatchAi is able to improve patients’ self-management of their health conditions, protocol and therapy adherence while providing clinical decision support for Clinicians with robust, real time data.
Preliminary data on patients using PatchAi shows a protocol adherence up to 95%, significantly higher than other digital solutions in the market today and up to 9 times higher than paper-based solutions.
The journey began in the hospital wards where the four founders worked in clinical research and healthcare across different roles, getting a firsthand experience in understanding the needs of patients and healthcare professionals.
"We experienced a threefold growth this year and now the team consists of 25 ‘superstars.’ We plan to grow at the same rate in 2021. This success would not have been possible without the hands-on support of the Team, that is committed daily to turning our vision into reality. We want everyone to feel active, directly involved and cooperatively responsible for our growth path" – says Alessandro Monterosso, CEO and Co-Founder, PatchAi.
"We are also deeply grateful to our customers who have trusted us and allowed us to show the value of PatchAi, to partners, consultants and investors who have contributed significantly to the achievement of our milestones. The 2020 milestones are just a starting point for the next challenges. The results of the year that has just started will be crucial to further demonstrate the added value and effectiveness of our solution", adds Alessandro Monterosso.
"We’re actively investing in the Life Science arena, be it equity, venture or real estate world-wide. We were glad to find an interesting initiative launched in our area in the Veneto region and not only were convinced by the business model that PatchAi is developing but also sincerely impressed by the drive and skillset of the team" – says Marco Stevanato, CEO of SFEM Italy.
"UV Cap got involved in the PatchAi project from the very beginning. The driving motivation to do so at the time was the same as it is now, to be a part of financing and shaping the digital landscape of healthcare in Europe. We’ve been and are still, very impressed with the team, product and benefits for patients the PatchAi project has shown so far" – affirms Nicholas Vetter, Investment Manager from UV Cap.
