(Bloomberg) -- Icelandic digital therapeutics company Sidekick Health has raised $55 million in Series B funding to expand the range of chronic conditions it can help treat as well as to grow its commercial footprint in the U.S.
The investment was led by London-based venture capital firm Novator Ventures with Wellington Partners, Asabys Partners, and Frumtak Ventures also taking part, the company said in a statement on Thursday. It plans to disclose the identity of a further U.S.-based investor at a later stage.
Sidekick runs an artificial intelligence-based smartphone app, which offers personalized treatment plans for patients, including medication reminders and tools to help manage multiple chronic illnesses, in a game-like interface.
“I believe that within three to five years, it will become unacceptable for a patient with a chronic condition to leave a doctor's office without a digital therapeutic as a core part of the treatment,” Chief Executive Officer Tryggvi Thorgeirsson said in an interview.
Thorgeirsson is one of two co-founders, both doctors, who started the company in 2014 in response to what he calls a “tsunami of often lifestyle-related chronic diseases.” Empowering the patient to manage their condition helps “prevent fires instead of putting them out,” he said.
Sidekick Health, previously known as GoodlifeMe, raised $20 million in a Series A round in October 2020. It currently has commercial partnerships in place to help treat 14 conditions, ranging from diabetes to ulcerative colitis. The funds it's raising will go toward expanding that total to more than 40 by 2026, according to Thorgeirsson. Its partners include Bayer AG, Pfizer Inc. and Anthem Inc., and three new partnerships are in the works, including a collaboration to support patients with breast cancer, he said.
The company also plans to double its headcount to 240 this year across four locations: Iceland, Germany, Sweden and the U.S., and declined to disclose its valuation.
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