KRY, the Swedish video-based healthcare provider, raises €6.1 million in seed round led by Index Ventures and Creandum

KRY, currently available in its native Sweden, will use this first investment to power international expansion (with entry into new markets to be announced over coming months), while continuing to build a superior healthcare experience for its customers. In addition to the investment, joining the KRY board are Fredrik Cassel from Creandum, Index Ventures’ Ben Holmes, and Thies Sander from Project A, all bringing with them a wealth of experience, expertise, and strategic insight.

Stockholm-based KRY is Sweden's first ever digital medical centre, allowing patients from across the country to receive a video consultation with a KRY-employed healthcare professional via their mobile phone, tablet or browser, rather than having to travel for a face-to-face appointment. Since KRY’s launch in 2015, over 30,000 Swedes have come to rely on the platform to seek medical advice, with 96% happy with the service received.

Once a patient has picked a time and date for their KRY appointment, and described their symptoms within the app, they are then connected via video link with a highly trained doctor for a 15-minute medical consultation. During this, the doctor diagnoses the patient and delivers advice for concerns that do not require physical examinations or samples, such as rashes, eczema, and fevers. Once the video appointment has finished the medical professional can, if necessary, print off a prescription or refer the patient to a specialist. The doctor will, as is industry standard, keep the user’s medical record. This process not only ensures patients receive the diagnosis or treatment they need, regardless of their location, but it also helps alleviate the already congested healthcare system.

KRY’s 15-minute video conferences cost 299 Swedish Krona per session, which is around the equivalent of £27/$35.

Fredrik Cassel, Partner at Creandum adds: “Even before this round of funding, KRY reached a pace of patient meetings that is truly impressive, even on a Pan-European level. The secret here is the KRY team’s focus on putting consumers first, which is why they are so loved by their users.”

Ben Holmes, Partner at Index Ventures adds: “We have been very impressed at the traction the KRY team has achieved with their well-designed and patient-centric mobile experience. Healthcare at the primary care level has not fully benefited from technology innovation and KRY has a real opportunity to expand and improve access to healthcare for everyone.”

Thies Sander, founding partner of Project A, adds: “KRY is our second investment in the digital health space, which is a promising market that will have a huge impact on the future of health care. We are looking forward to driving this development together with the KRY team.”

This year, New York-based research organisation CB insights reported that digital health startups received $2bn worth of investment in the first quarter of 2016, marking it as a record year for funding. In 2015, $4.5bn was invested, compared to just $1bn in 2011, which is a clear indicator of the rapid growth within the sector. PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) also predicted that one of the top three mobile trends for 2016 would be healthcare, and found that mobile health app downloads doubled in 2013-2015, from 16% to 32%.

About KRY

Founded in 2014 by Johannes Schildt, Fredrik Jung-Abbou, Josefin Landgård, and Joachim Hedenius, KRY aims to provide around the clock healthcare for patients all over the world, reducing the pressure put on traditional healthcare providers.

KRY is an approved healthcare provider, with its doctors all subject to the industry standard rules and regulations. KRY has hundreds of doctors available to connect with patients seven days a week, with the company planning to eventually be open all year round.