Why we invested in Push Doctor?

We announced a couple of weeks ago our recent investment in www.pushdoctor.co.uk. Since we made that announcement there have been two further announcements in the same sector. Babylon announced their funding from Kinnevik and others and Call9 (a US company) announced their investment from Index. It looks like something is up in this market. We have strong conviction about the eHealth market that is clearly shared by several of our peers.

So why do we have that conviction and why did we invest in Push Doctor? This is why:

1) They make lives better
2) We are convinced the market will happen – it is ‘when’, not ‘if’
3) They are a marketplace and we love marketplace businesses
4) We believe they have the right team and the right strategy
5) We think that the UK can produce the winner in this market
6) We put together a great syndicate to support the business.

It is one of our beliefs at Oxford Capital that we should be investing in businesses that can not only make money for our investors but also make people’s lives better, more productive or more fulfilling. 

While our investment strategy is not exclusively healthcare focused, we have made many investments across the healthcare spectrum into companies such as Oxitec and Oxford BioTherapeutics that are making huge strides in fighting diseases such as dengue fever, malaria and certain types of cancer. These are companies that are making lives better. Push Doctor operates at a different location on this spectrum but it shares this common goal. Its mission is to help people to “start feeling better” by improving access to primary care, a problem which keeps getting more acute in the UK.

We share a belief with the management team that remote consultation is a question of “when, not if.” As the market activity indicates, this may be the right time for these investments - where tech, products, regulation and consumers can come together.

Importantly, as well as being an eHealth company, Push Doctor is by its nature a marketplace - a tech-enabled convenience proposition which is well aligned with a core area of our expertise.

Whenever we make investments we focus on management teams and put them at the centre of our decision-making. We have been very impressed by what Eren and Matt have done to date and the energy and focus with which they are pursuing their mission. We look forward to our journey together.

Another tenet for Oxford Capital is to try to back UK companies that have the potential for global leadership. The UK provides unique access to healthcare that is the envy of many in the world. Where better to start to imagine how the next decades of healthcare provision will take shape?

We also believe in building lasting consumer brands and working in partnership with co-investors. We are delighted to be working with Eren, Matt and the Push Doctor team but equally happy to work with investors and partners like Vishal Gulati at Draper, Romain Lavault at Partech, Noel McKee, Tim Dempsey and the rest of the extended team.