Oviva, a UK startup that sells digital support services, including Type 2 diabetes treatment. It also offers personalized lifestyle and diet advice via apps. This brings its total raised to date up to $115M.
Oviva states that the raise will be used to scale-up after a great year of growth in the health tech industry. It is being co-led jointly by Sofina, Temasek, along with existing investors AlbionVC and Eight Roads Ventures. F-Prime Capital, MTIP and several angels.
The fact that wealthy Western countries continue to experience rising rates of obesity, and other health conditions such as Type 2 diabetes (which can also be linked to poor diets and insufficient exercise) is a key factor behind this growth. To manage rising healthcare costs, more attention is being paid to preventative than to reactive healthcare.
Oviva is a lifestyle management company that helps patients manage their weight and other related health conditions like diabetes. It has developed a blended support program that includes personalized care from healthcare professionals and digital tools that allow them to track their food, get support and track their progress towards achieving individual health goals.
It can point to 23 peer reviewed publications to support its approach. Key results show that patients lose an average 6.8% of their weight in 6 months. 53% of its specialists programs report that they have remission of type 2 diabetes within 12 months.
Oviva sells its digitally-delivered support programs directly to public health insurance companies or publicly funded health services, who then offer the service (or refer) to their patients/customers. The current availability of its programs is in the UK, Germany and Switzerland, but the Series C aims to expand access.
Oviva told TechCrunch that we will expand our reach to European markets, where the health system reimburses us for the lifestyle and diet changes we offer. It is encouraging to see that more healthcare systems are opening up digital reimbursement routes, such as Germany for DiGAs and Belgium in recent months.
The startup has so far treated over 200,000 patients, but Oviva suggests that there is a much larger market. Oviva also indicates that more than 300 million Europeans are living with health problems. It also suggests that only a fraction of people are currently receiving digital care.
Oviva has a total of 5,000+ partnerships with doctors, health insurance companies, and other healthcare professionals. Oviva is looking to expand its reach by making its technology more affordable to a wider audience. It claims that it has more than doubled the number of people being treated and the revenue earned over the past year.
The Series C funding will help millions of people in Europe with poor health due to lifestyle and diet.
It also announced that it would increase its workforce to 800 people by 2022 as part of the scale-up plan.
Digital vs. face-to-face, aside from the cost savings, studies have shown that digital delivery has the greatest impact on uptake and completion rates. This is despite the fact that digital delivery can be more affordable. We have also seen high uptake rates exceeding 70% and high completion rates around 80% in some groups, such as those who are working-age or ethnic minorities. This compares with the completion and uptake rates for most face-to–face services, which are less than half of what they are.
Oviva identifies Liva Healthcare as the closest competitor in the region when asked about competition.
WW, formerly Weight Watchers, also offers a digital solution to help them access reimbursement in certain markets. Many others are also trying to reach this group using new methods but aren't reimbursed or offer wellness solutions. Noom is a European app that offers self-paying customers a solution. However, we believe that this is a distinct market from the reimbursement-based medical one.
Oviva states that it will use the Series C funding not only to expand its market presence but also to target new markets and increase its scale. Oviva may also consider M&A opportunities to grow the business.
We are open to expanding to other countries. If we feel our technology can be used to improve patient care and create value, it informed us.
