The newest deal comes from Cera, based in the UK.
👯 Founder(s): Ben Maruthappu (a British physician and entrepreneur with degrees from Oxford, Cambridge, and Harvard) and Marek Sacha (a Czech-British businessman and former CEO of Rohlik.cz)
📅 Founding year: 2016
🏭 Industry: HealthTech
💥 Problem: The NHS faces immense strain due to an ageing population, overwhelmed emergency services, and mounting hospital waiting lists. There’s also a severe healthcare staffing shortage and a need to improve patient outcomes while cutting costs.
📣 Solution: Cera uses AI-driven, in-home preventative care to predict and prevent health issues, streamline operations for carers, and reduce hospital admissions and patient falls. Its app logs health observations and uses AI analysis to provide early warnings for potential issues.
👥 Customers: Local authorities (150 councils and 29 Integrated Care Boards in England), elderly patients requiring at-home care, and healthcare systems like the NHS.
🌱 Stage: Growth stage, cash-flow positive.
💰 Investment amount: $150M (€146M) in the latest funding round.
Investor’s perspective: “Cera positively delivers across all components of the iron triangle of healthcare—quality, accessibility, and cost-efficiency,” said Vahit Alili of Schroders Capital.
🚀 Funded by: BDT & MSD Partners (US-based) and Schroders Capital (UK-based)
💡 It will be spent on: Enhancing AI technology, expanding specialised care and clinical trials, upskilling healthcare workers in AI, and further scaling operations.
In their own words: “We are achieving profitability and have made significant progress in how we use our technology and artificial intelligence. We have expanded into more areas of home healthcare and are using AI to help alleviate the pressure on the NHS,” stated Dr. Ben Maruthappu.
💪 Their specialty: Leveraging proprietary AI models alongside tools like Google’s Gemini AI and Microsoft ChatGPT. Achieved a 20% reduction in patient falls, a 70% decrease in emergency hospital admissions, and 83% accuracy in fall prediction.
🔑 Business model: Revenue is generated from contracts with councils and Integrated Care Boards, providing at-home healthcare services powered by AI to reduce strain on healthcare systems.
📈 Funding so far: $470M, including the latest $150M round and a $320M equity/debt round in 2022.
🕰️ Past investors: Earlymarket, Guinness Ventures, DigitalHealth.London, Robin Klein, among others.
👩🏫 Market: Primarily focuses on the UK’s ageing population and local healthcare systems (NHS and councils), with a potential to expand globally as demand for in-home care grows.
📊 Traction: Operates in 150 of the UK’s 382 local authorities; currently saves 1,210 hospital bed days per month; achieved a 150% five-year compound annual growth rate.
⚡ Competitors: Home Instead, Bluebird Care (UK); Signify Health, CVS Health, Honor (US).
