U.K.-based AI health services provider Babylon Health announced last week that it has successfully closed its $550 million Series C funding round, placing the company’s valuation at over $2 billion. According to the company, this marks the largest-ever fundraise for a digital health delivery company in either the United States or Europe. Babylon Health plans to use the new capital to expand to the U.S. and Asia and fund its R&D aimed at the diagnosis of serious, chronic conditions.
Participants in this funding round included a number of financial and strategic investors, including PIF (Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund) and returning investors Kinnevik and Vostok New Ventures; an undisclosed large U.S.-based health insurance company also participated, which rumors suggest is Centene Corporation.
Babylon Health’s main product facilitates remote consultations between healthcare professionals and patients via text and video messaging through its mobile app. One of its key clients is the U.K.’s National Health Service, for which the company provides a chatbot used to assist in diagnosis.
The company has seen its customer base grow recently, adding services in Rwanda in addition to those already offered in developed markets such as the U.K. and Canada. Babylon Health says that it now delivers 4,000 clinical consultations daily—equivalent of one patient consultation every 10 seconds. The company says that its services cover 4.3 million patients worldwide with over 1.2 million digital consultations to date.
This latest funding round represents a big leap forward for the company. Its previous financing rounds were much more modest; the most recent prior investment was $60 million three years ago. Indeed, Babylon Health had only raised around £72 million total before its Series C round.
According to the company, $450 million of the $500 million has been secured; an additional $50 million will be exercised at a later date, and the rest will be closed “shortly.”
Announcing the successful close of this funding round, Babylon Health’s founder and CEO Ali Parsa stated: “Our mission at Babylon is to put accessible and affordable healthcare into the hands of everyone on earth. This investment will allow us to maximize the number of lives we touch across the world. We have a long way to go and a lot still to deliver. We are grateful to our investors, our partners and 1,500 brilliant Babylonians for allowing us to forge ahead with our mission. Chronic conditions are an increasing burden to affordability of healthcare across the globe. Our technology provides a solid base for a comprehensive solution and our scientists, engineers, and clinicians are excited to work on it. We have seen significant demand from partners across the US and Asia. While the burden of healthcare is global, the solutions have to be localized to meet the specific needs and culture of each country.”
