Yahoo Finance Aussie start-up HealthEngine gets $26.7m injection from Apple backer
Stuart McKinnon, TheWest.com.au
Online medical appointment booking website HealthEngine has secured $26.7 million in funding as it looks to expand its business across Australia and around the world.
The Perth-based start-up, described as a hotels.com for doctors, has attracted the $26.7 million investment from Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm Sequoia India, which has previously provided seed capital for the likes of tech giants such as Apple, Google, AirBnB and WhatsApp.
The funding marks Sequoia India’s first direct investment in an Australian owned and headquartered tech start-up.
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The funding round also attracted new investors including private equity fund Alium Capital and several notable high net worth families.
Follow-on investments were received from Go Capital, Carsales.com.au founder Greg Roebuck, and the founders of the Lux Group, one of Australia’s biggest e-commerce companies.
HealthEngine was founded by Dr Marcus Tan and Adam Yap in 2006 and is already used by more than one million people in Australia every month who can book appointments with more than 15,000 doctors and other healthcare professionals.
The recent cash injection will allow HealthEngine to add to its product portfolio, expand into other markets and make acquisitions as well as add to the firm’s 100 staff in Perth, Melbourne and Sydney.
HealthEngine founder and chief executive Dr Tan said the healthcare sector affected every Australian but had been slow to adapt to many of the advances now customary in other industries.
“Our goal is to improve the health of all Australians by providing a platform that enables both timely access to quality care and a seamless patient experience,” he said.
“When we created HealthEngine, we wanted to break down the frustrations felt from both patients and practitioners trying to navigate the complex health system. We’re empowering patients to access and manage their healthcare through better information and technology.
“We’re also helping healthcare professionals be more effective and efficient within their practices, which ultimately leads to better care provision.”
Dr Tan said HealthEngine needed an investment partner with a breadth of expertise that would help the brand unleash its potential both in Australia and on the global stage.
“This investment announces HealthEngine’s arrival on the global start-up scene, hopefully putting us on a similar trajectory to many of Sequoia’s other successes,” he said.
Sequoia India principal Pieter Kemps said healthcare was an enormous sector ripe for innovation globally.
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“We have been impressed by the HealthEngine team as they are credible domain experts with the technical and commercial smarts to build a world-class business,” he said.
Sequoia India joins cornerstone investors Seven West Media and Telstra Ventures, with a seat on the company’s board.
