Pitchfest finalist Healthtech-1 raises £2.7m in seed funding

Digital Health Rewired Pitchfest finalist, Healthtech-1 has raised £2.7 million in a seed funding round led by London-based VC Moonfire and Silicon Valley accelerator Y Combinator.

The startup, which automates administration tasks in primary care, said its solution is live in 721 GP practices in England, an increase from just 10 in May 2022.

Healthtech-1 co-founders Peter Huang, former Monzo web engineer,  Raj Kohli, an ex-Accenture consultant reached the final stage of Rewired Pitchfest in 2022 and in 2023.

The team is now aiming to be live in more than 90% of the market by the end of 2025.

Currently, patients at many GP practices register themselves manually by filling out a physical  or online form which is manually inputted into the practice’s operating system.

Kohli told Digital Health News: “The standard of software primary care staff have to use is criminal. How can we expect the NHS to deliver world class care with tech from the 90s?

“We see a world in which patients can get access to the GP when they need it, and care is delivered in a proactive way.

“Imagine if when you registered with a new GP, it could be recognised that you’re due a medication review or diabetes check-up.

“And imagine if those kinds of gaps in your care could be automatically and proactively closed by updating information about you or offering you the right appointment — all without the patient needing to pick up the phone or practice staff needing to be bogged down by admin”.

The Healthtech-1 solution conducts identity checks against NHS records, writes the data into the system and identifies areas to the practice where they might need to pay more attention, such as safeguarding.

In 2024, the team has been building its second product, Automated Lab Reports, which is currently able to automate around 20% of normal and abnormal results that a GP practice receives. The product has automated 20,975 results across 31 practices to date.

Meanwhile, NHSE confirmed in June 2024 that its £300 million digital pathways framework had been cancelled, following delays caused by a legal claim.

The framework was aimed at driving a rapid move to a modern general practice model by connecting ICBs with approved suppliers for digital GP tools for messaging, consultations and care navigation.

Modern general practice is an approach set out in the ‘Delivery plan for recovering access to primary care‘, published in May 2023, which aims to use better digital telephony, digital online contact tools and improved workflows to improve patient access to GPs.