HealthMatch, an Australian digital clinical trial recruitment platform that matches patients with the right clinical trials, raised $18 million in a financing round led by venture capital fund Square Peg.
The new investors in the latest round include the family office of former Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, and Lucy Turnbull, who was previously chair of listed Australian biotechnology company Immutep.
Singaporean fund January Capital has also bought in, along with Whatsapp founding engineer Eugene Fooksman and Unified Healthcare Group founders Brandon and Nicky Carp.
The Australian startup has raised over $25 million since its founding in late 2017, including a $6 million round in 2019, led by venture capital funds Square Peg and Tempus Partners.
According to the company, its clinical trial matching platform has experienced strong growth, with its user base growing from 8,000 in June 2020 to 80,000 at the start of December, a 10x increase in patients using the service to access clinical trials in less than six months.
HealthMatch plans to use the latest funds to expand its clinical trial services in Asia. The company claims that it facilitates over 2,000 patients a month enrolling in clinical trials.
“HealthMatch is a great example of how patient-centric design in healthcare can radically improve the efficacy and speed of new drug and treatment development. We are passionate believers in their mission and look forward to supporting Manuri Gunawardena (the founder of HealthMatch) as she continues to scale the team and their geographic reach,” said co-founder and partner at Square Peg, Paul Bassat.
“I am inspired and very excited about the potential of HealthMatch to democratize access for everyone to clinical trials and ultimately accelerate the rate of recruitment for clinical trials,” said former Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull. “Recruitment for clinical trials is often quite a challenge, and by removing barriers, HealthMatch is helping advance medical research.”
Clinical trial software companies have raised over $600 million since 2015. Recently, Massive Bio, an artificial intelligence-driven digital platform connecting cancer patients and their community oncologists for clinical trial enrollment, announced a $2.6 million round of funding.
