Health tech company Little Journey, aiming to support paediatric care delivery through personalised psychological support, has announced the raising of £6 million Series A funding with intent to accelerate work on a global scale.
Created to support children undergoing elective surgery, Little Journey’s platform provides customised preparation and psychological support to hep children and families through medical journeys. It also holds a content repository on 12 procedures such as MRI, blood tests and mental health assessments, with plans to add more.
The £6 million in funding is to help scale Little Journey’s operations, focusing in particular on the US healthcare market, and will also be used to support system maturation and fund product enhancements such as the development of interoperability and data collection capabilities. Additionally, the funding is expected to help Little Journey strengthen partnerships with pharmaceutical companies and “extend the reach” of its grant-funded projects.
The funding round was led by Par Equity, with additional investment made by Mercia Ventures, the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund I, Octopus Ventures, Calm/Storm Ventures and angel investors.
Healthcare market news
Recent news from the wider healthcare market has included Quadrivia, an AI company set up by Babylon Health founder Ali Parsa, launching in beta personal clinical assistant tool Qu. Qu is designed to support clinicians across the “full stack of routine clinical and administrative tasks” as well as patient interactions, continuous monitoring, decision-making and chronic and post-operative care.
Earlier this month, HTN reported how London-based Scalpel AI, combining computer vision and machine learning to identify and track surgical instruments, raised £3.8 million in a funding round designed to help the company scale its global operations and roll out its technology across the healthcare supply chain.
In late October we noted that DeepHealth, provider of a portfolio of AI solutions designed to support breast, lung, prostate and neurological care, acquired cancer diagnostic company Kheiron Medical Technologies Limited, as part of efforts to expand its portfolio of AI-powered diagnostic and screening solutions.
Paediatric care in the spotlight
We recently highlighted how NHS Cheshire and Merseyside commissioned a thought leadership report designed to explore how system working could support better outcomes for children and young people.
And earlier in the year, HTN shared how The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust rolled out a paediatric vitals electronic system at Princess Royal Hospital’s paediatric unit and emergency department as well as the emergency department at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, as part of efforts to improve the tracking of deterioration in children.
