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Saudi Arabia-based healthtech startup Clinicy has secured an undisclosed seven-figure amount in a Series A funding round led by Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP), a UAE-headquartered venture capital (VC) firm that focuses on early and growth-stage tech startups. The round also saw the participation of Gate Capital, a UAE-based corporate finance and strategic advisory firm, as well as some of Clinicy’s existing Saudi-based investors such as Kafou Group, a multi-sector corporate development entity, and Fadeed Investment, an early-stage investment firm.
Launched by Prince Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Abdullah Al Faisal, Abdullah bin Sulaiman Alobaid, and Saud bin Sulaiman Alobaid, Clinicy is a cloud-based software as a service (SaaS) for medical institution management. A big part of the startup’s vision, therefore, has been to reduce administrative inefficiencies that exist within the healthcare sector. Clinicy has aimed to achieve this by customizing patient experience platforms through the automation of processes such as patient onboarding and retention.
Speaking to Entrepreneur Middle East, Prince Mohammed elaborated on why such bottlenecks exist in the first place. “One of the biggest problems within the Saudi healthcare sector is high no-show rates- those missed appointments are costing the industry upwards of SAR3 billion, which is just shy of a US$1 billion per year,” he explains. “Primarily the reasons for this include patients forgetting they have an appointment, patients not being able to reach their healthcare provider to update their appointment or details, inefficient management systems to deal with customers, and low technological adoption and integration. At Clinicy, we’ve already supported more than one million patients in the Kingdom, with medical institutions benefiting from up to 75% reductions in missed appointments through Clinicy’s platform.”
In a further attempt to improve the overall healthcare experience for patients, Clinicy’s proprietary platform also integrates clinics with regulatory bodies and the broader healthcare ecosystem. By creating a more coherent ecosystem, Prince Mohammed believes that his startup could create a more digitally agile medical industry within the Kingdom. “The key point would be enabling doctors and healthcare providers to communicate effectively through digital technology,” he adds. “With Clinicy’s existing systems and the launch of a new patient-facing mobile application, patients can easily manage their appointments, update their medical details, and see their medical records. By bringing all this information into digitally secure, accessible, and cloud-based records, medical institutions and patients alike have all the information they need at their fingertips. Digital solutions provide increased accessibility and convenience, and the increase in automation for the healthcare provider, allows teams to concentrate more on patient delivery than administration.”
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Of course, having locked in a significant amount through the Series A round (which is said to be one of the largest in the history of the Kingdom’s burgeoning healthtech sector), Clinicy will now look to further expand its solutions across the market. “Our funding will help to scale up our operations and ensure we can be a ‘one stop shop’ for medical institutions, offering a wide range of services that cater to their daily operations in an efficient and cost effective manner,” Prince Mohammed says.
Clinicy’s approaches towards creating a more efficient healthcare sector have certainly been taken notice of by regional investors as well. “Saudi Arabia is witnessing a rapid adoption of technology in the healthcare industry which is driven by a digitally-savvy population, continually improving standards set by the government, and growing competition between healthcare providers,” says Walid Mansour, Co-Chief Executive at MEVP. “Clinicy offers a seamless cloud-based platform that enables clinics and medical centers to offer digital services, run a cost-effective business, and continuously improve their healthcare standards.” A similar sentiment was shared by Munther Hilal, CEO at Gate Capital, who said “Clinicy is well-positioned to drive the digital transformation in the Kingdom’s HealthTech sector.”
With fresh capital at their disposal, the Clinicy team is now eager to implement its plans for the future. “Firstly, we are going to scale up our operations across the Kingdom including investment in technology and talent,” Prince Mohammed says. “Secondly, we are optimizing and launching a complete one-stop shop solution for medical institutions and providers, to enhance administrative efficiency and outcomes. And, we will be increasing our offering directly to consumers (patients), with accessible, digital healthcare solutions.”
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