October 28, 2020
Sidekick Health, a nordic digital therapeutics company 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 Health 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 Health 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 Health 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.