X-Europe’s startup SidekickHealth, which operates a gamified digital care platform for multiple therapeutic areas, raised $20M in Series A funding to advance European growth and expand US operations. Congratulations, SidekickHealth!
Dr. Sam Oddsson and Dr. Tryggvi Thorgeirsson, founders of SidekickHealth
Please read here the official Press Release:
Nordic digital therapeutics company Sidekick Health has completed a $20 million oversubscribed Series A financing round led by Wellington Partners and Asabys Partners, through its fund SAHII, with participation by existing investors Novator and Frumtak Ventures.
Sidekick specializes in the creation of gamified digital therapeutic solutions and programs, transforming chronic and lifestyle disease management across multiple therapeutic areas, ranging from diabetes to ulcerative colitis and smoking cessation.
“The healthcare landscape has shifted significantly this year as a direct result of COVID-19, accelerating the adoption and demand for digital health solutions. We have grown our customer base sharply in recent months, adding new partnerships with global pharmaceutical firms and leading US-based healthcare organizations,” said Sidekick chief executive officer and co-founder Dr. Tryggvi Thorgeirsson.
“These developments have confirmed our vision to bring healthcare into people’s homes, augment traditional medical care outside the bricks-and-mortar clinical setting, and empower patients to take control of their own health. Our new investors bring tremendous value to the table, supporting our continued growth in Europe, and helping Sidekick to continue to expand its operations in the US,” Thorgeirsson added.
Sidekick will use the funds for development and validation into new therapeutic areas, to drive product development forward to increase its lead in patient engagement and retention, and to further position itself as the preferred provider to expand pharmacotherapies, thereby improving health outcomes.
“At Wellington, we are all about improving healthcare for all stakeholders, patients, practitioners, and payors alike. Sidekick’s team has done a remarkable job of creating a product platform with the potential to achieve this aim on a global scale. We are very excited to support the company with their plans for significant growth,” said Dr. Regina Hodits, managing partner at Wellington.
“We are impressed by the way this team has been able to put together a technology platform delivering evidence-based therapeutic programs, that are effective, adaptive but also valuable for their commercial partners. Sidekick clearly ticks all the boxes of what we are looking for at Asabys” said Josep LI. Sanfeliu, managing partner and co-founder of Asabys.
Hodits and Sanfeliu will join the board of directors of Sidekick on behalf of the new investors. At Wellington, Hodits and partners grew the Life Science investment arm to over €400 million under management, and she has financed over 25 life science companies in her career. Hodits previously led the European life sciences efforts of Boston-based Atlas Venture, worked for Apax Partners, and started to build her extensive network in the global healthcare industry during her tenure at McKinsey & Company. She studied chemical engineering in Vienna and holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry.
Sanfeliu founded Asabys Partners with his partner Clara Campàs in 2018. Formerly, he co-founded Ysios Capital, where he was the partner in charge of health technology investments. Sanfeliu started his career as a lawyer in Cuatrecasas and has a degree in law from the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, an LL.M. degree from the University of Michigan Law School and also an MBA from IESE Business School.
"We are excited to have two new value-adding investors on board. This confirms our long-held belief that Sidekick has all the necessary ingredients to transform the way people access healthcare and further position itself as a leading player in the digital health sector," Andri Sveinsson, managing partner at Novator, said.
Sidekick’s fundraising efforts were supported by the EIT Digital Accelerator, but the company was selected by EIT Digital as one of Europe’s ten best deep technology scale-ups. EIT Digital is a leading European digital innovation and entrepreneurial education organization, supporting the creation of a strong digital Europe. Since 2012, the EIT Digital Accelerator has supported start-up and scale-up companies, which have collectively raised over €900 million.
About Sidekick
Sidekick was founded by two medical doctors -- Dr. Tryggvi Thorgeirsson and Dr. Saemundur Oddsson -- who had worked for years treating tens of thousands of patients with lifestyle-related illnesses. A staggering 68% of all deaths are due to lifestyle-related illnesses and the two co-founders, frustrated with dealing with the consequences, realized that a new approach was needed to prevent and manage chronic illnesses. The company operates a patient-centric, digital care platform -- delivering industry-leading retention and clinically proven strong impact on health outcomes, ranging from weight and blood glucose to quality of life and medication adherence. The Sidekick platform combines an evidence-based clinical approach with behavioral economics and gamification to help global customers expand therapy reach. It is CE-marked as a Class I Medical Device and is scalable to over 40 distinct chronic diseases, 13 of which are live in 2020. Sidekick’s platform has also been adopted to remotely triage and support people in home isolation, diagnosed with COVID-19. In addition to supporting COVID-19 patients, the remote patient monitoring solution of the wider Sidekick platform is now being used in Europe and the US, to support patients with other conditions.
About Wellington Partners
Wellington Partners is a leading European venture capital firm investing in early- and growth stage life science companies. Wellington Partners is focused on investing in the most promising life science companies in the fields of biotechnology, therapeutics, medical technology, diagnostics and digital health. With funds totaling more than €1 billion, thereof €430 million committed to Life Sciences, Wellington Partners has been actively supporting world class private companies translating true innovation into successful businesses with exceptional growth. To date, Wellington Partners has invested in 46 innovative life science companies, including Actelion (acquired by J&J), Definiens (acquired by AZ), invendo (acquired by Ambu), Rigontec (acquired by MSD), Symetis (acquired by Boston Scientific), and Themis (acquired by MSD).
About Asabys Partners
Asabys Partners is a venture capital firm specializing in the healthcare sector, founded by Josep Ll. Sanfeliu and Clara Campàs with the participation of Alantra. Its first investment vehicle, Sabadell Asabys Health Innovation Investments SCR, SA (SAHII), was launched in 2019 and is backed by the Banc Sabadell as reference investor. The fund has a target size of more than €80M and invests in healthcare companies across three verticals: biotech, medtech and health innovation, that have highly innovative and disruptive technologies. The fund’s investment in the company benefits from the financial backing of the European Union under the European Fund for Strategic Investments (“EFSI”) set up under the Investment Plan for Europe. The purpose of EFSI is to help support financing and implementing productive investments in the European Union and to ensure increased access to financing.
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