Germany’s Doctorly, a medical practice management software startup, has raised $10m in a Series A round from investors including Canadian healthcare giant WELL Health Technologies and Horizons Ventures, the investment arm of Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing.
The startup has its sights set on scaling in its home market in 2023, and plans to use the money to build out its sales and marketing teams.
What does Doctorly do?
Doctorly helps medical practices — like GPs, urologists, gynaecologists and paediatricians — manage things like medical records, prescriptions, interoperability with labs and medical devices, billing and appointments. Current software is outdated and inefficient, says founder and CEO Samir El-Alami.
The number one software used by GPs in Germany launched in 1987, and was developed before UX was a thing
“The number one software used by GPs in Germany launched in 1987, and was developed before UX was a thing,” he tells Sifted. “It’s truly painful to see how doctors have to work.”
Doctorly is cloud-based, meaning that medical records can easily be accessed by different stakeholders involved in a patient’s care — whereas most medical practices in Germany store medical records on paper or disk.
The problem with medical practice software
One of the reasons medical practice software is still so archaic is the amount of regulation needed to handle sensitive data like medical records.
Doctorly was founded in 2018, but spent four years developing its product before getting approved by the German regulator — Kassenärztliche Bundesvereinigung (KBV) — and launched at the start of 2022.
Doctorly says it's the only VC-backed startup in Germany with regulatory approval to break into the legacy practice management software industry.
In France, there’s also unicorn Doctolib, which after raising a $549m round last year announced it would be building add-ons to its booking software that allowed practices to manage patient records and billing.
A number of other startups have cropped up in the space looking to digitise parts of medical practice operating systems. There’s UK-based Accurx, a communication platform for patients and healthcare professionals, which raised £27.5m Series A in September 2021. Also in the market is medical practice operating system Elephant Healthcare and process automation platform Medloop.
The next steps for Doctorly
The startup plans to invest the round in accelerating its growth in Germany, which alongside adding new features to its software will involve building out sales and marketing teams.
Eventually, Doctorly will look to expand into other European countries — but it will wait until after the its Series B, which El-Alami says it could raise sometime in 2024.
The investors
Alongside WELL Health Technologies and Horizons Ventures, the round also included:
- The Delta
- Speedinvest
- UNIQA Ventures
- Calm/Storm Ventures
- Seedcamp
