French startup Ambler has completed a €6 million financing round from Bpifrance (via the Digital Venture division), Idinvest Partners, Partech and Kima Ventures. It’ll use the funds to accelerate the development of its platform for connecting healthcare transporters and institutions.
Currently, non-emergency medical transport (for example for patients with kidney failure, oncology needs, rehabilitation or residency in psychiatric hospitals), is highly fragmented. Hospitals have to manually manage each trip, which could be carried out by different providers each time. Typically, managing non-emergency patient transport is a burden on both healthcare staff (booking journeys, managing incidents, etc.), as well as on buyers and the financial teams of the institutions (calls for tenders, cost control, invoicing, recovery of budget allocations, etc.).
Ambler, founded in 2018, offers a single platform to manage all inter-hospital patient transfers, making use of hospital vehicles to save budget. The startup pulls together the availability and cost of numerous health transport professionals (ambulance companies, light medical vehicles and taxis) to help hospitals find the best offer, meet demand and simplify the administrative work involved.
In just 18 months, Ambler’s solution has already convinced more than 200 public and private hospitals and 500 transport companies to go digital. With this new round of financing, Ambler aims to expand its business in the area of travel between the patient’s home and the healthcare facility (dialysis, radiotherapy, day hospitalization, etc.), which accounts for 80% of total demand. To achieve this, Ambler promotes a partnership model with the health transport companies based on cooperation between the network members and the mutualization of support.
The startup also intends to continue its technological developments and strengthen its operational and commercial teams. Finally, Ambler aims to expand its presence in new French regions, with the goal of nationwide coverage by 2021.
Mehdi Ben Abroug, co-founder and CEO of Ambler commented: “The achievement of this Series A round will allow us, together with trusted investors, to accelerate towards our vision for Ambler: to become the largest ambulance network in France by bringing together thousands of small and medium-sized ambulance companies, using an innovative partnership model and our technology to raise the level of service to the highest standards of mobility”.
Adrien Neel, Investment Director at Bpifrance’s Digital Venture division, commented: “It is essential to simplify the lives of hospital staff, who are today overwhelmed by logistical and administrative tasks. That is why we are delighted to accompany Ambler in this new phase of growth and proud to have been able to lead this fundraising in the current pandemic context”.
via https://www.AiUpNow.com/ by contact@bcurdy.com, Khareem Sudlow
