Irina Achim
We talked with Wargha Enayati, Managing Partner of the Cleverage VC fund specialized in investments in health startups. This series is trying to discover recommendations from the relevant actors in the ecosystem and the promising startups of tomorrow.
Cleverage VC is the fund that provides support to those who need to grow. They invest in companies that develop innovative products and solutions that go beyond traditional ones and that will be central to the future of health technology.
They are interested in making seed investments between 200,000 EUR and 500,000 EUR, but they are also open to pre-seed investments of up to 200,000 EUR or even series A investments between 500,000 and 700,000 EUR.
Cleverage's founding members are some of the region's most celebrated IT and healthcare entrepreneurs and are dedicated to developing the entire healthcare space.
Wargha Enayati is also the Managing Partner of the Cleverage VC fund, an important representative of the medtech field in Romania.
Dr. Wargha Enayati is a cardiologist and entrepreneur in the health field, the entrepreneur who laid the foundations of the private healthcare system in Romania.
In 1995, he established Unirea Medical Center, which later became Regina Maria – The Private Healthcare Network, the main medical services company in Romania. In 2021, Dr. Enayati launched Enayati Medical City, the first medical city in Romania, which includes an integrated oncology hospital, a geriatric and recovery hospital, the largest outpatient clinic with 60 offices and a residential center for the elderly.
His entrepreneurial vision has always focused on the healthcare system and its support, seeking to invest in startups that bring innovative solutions here.
Its investment portfolio includes: Concierge Medical Clinic (ex Intermedicas), a medical concierge company and a place where you can get a second opinion; MedicHub, a medical communication company that later integrated the "Viata Medicală" magazine - the most important specialized publication in Romania; Docbook, the first app for doctor appointments and Medijobs, a medical recruitment platform. In 2019, together with other renowned physicians, Dr. Enayati launched the Association of Independent Physicians as a network of clinics and offices, aiming at integrated patient care.
"I believe in the ability of Healthtech startups to attract financing, both in the short term and in the medium and long term, due to the extraordinary potential to generate advanced technological solutions for current problems. Globally, the sector ranked second in the top of attracted funding, after fintech. What makes me even more happy is the fact that we are seeing an increase in early stage allocations for this sector, against the background of the increase in the number of projects that address the needs of the health sector."
Docbook.ro
"It stands out through a business model that is difficult to replicate."
Docbook.ro is the first application in Romania for online doctor appointments, launched in 2016, after an investment of approximately 1 million euros.
What does DocBook.ro do?
It simplifies the process of making an appointment with the doctor, the patient finds a chat provider directly in the application, has a list of favorite doctors, can put himself/herself on a waiting list for highly sought after doctors and other functionalities that contribute to the entire patient - - doctors integration process.
Through DocBook, users have access to doctors' schedules and can make real-time appointments with doctors listed in the app. The application is synchronized with the systems of the clinics listed (enrolled) in the application and thus in less than a minute they can make an appointment with the doctor.
Medijobs
"A platform that aims to increase the retention of medical specialists and has begun international expansion."
MEDIjobs is currently the largest platform dedicated to medical recruitment in Romania. It is a marketplace platform that represents the meeting place of medical specialists and employers in Romania.
It was founded in 2015, by Catrinel Hagivreta Djafari and George Hagivreta. The MEDIjobs platform operates in Romania and the USA.
What does MEDIjobs do?
MEDIjobs differs from other similar platforms in that medical specialists do not apply for jobs, but receive job offers from employers, according to the profiles created in the platform.
In Romania, the MEDIjobs community counts almost 70,000 specialists in the medical field and over 1,900 companies, from 73 cities.
So far, MEDIjobs has processed more than 180,000 job offers addressed to professionals in the field.
RepsMate
"Rapid expansion; is attracting a growing number of users and partners, which is a clear indicator of the value RepsMate brings to customers.”
RepsMate is a conversation analytics platform that helps companies decipher the voice of their customers, by measuring in detail the analytical data of conversations, tracking the parameters behind emotions, objections, intentions and more. The company received 50,000 euros from investors of the association TechAngels Romania, in January 2021, and a convertible loan of 65,000 euros from business angels and Cleverage VC.
In the first half of 2022, the adoption of the solution by five medium-sized customers contributed to a 4-fold increase in RepsMate's recurring revenue, up to the level of 50,000 euros annually. Currently over 300,000 conversations are processed monthly.
What does RepsMate do?
The platform, which uses artificial intelligence, includes a module for transcribing conversations into text and one for interpreting emotions, and provides real-time alerts for critical situations to initiate immediate actions.
The solution offers the possibility to monitor 100% call quality and prevent complaints.
Parol
"It addresses an acute problem in the health sector - it takes some of the administrative burden and helps clinics and doctors provide better care to patients. The flexible founding team and the enthusiastic feedback received from the market so far make me confident in Parol's ability to create a positive impact in the healthcare sector.”
Romanian startup Parol is developing an end-to-end technology that helps doctors and medical clinics provide better care to patients, saving time by taking over part of the administrative tasks.
The company raised a first round of funding of 450,000 euros at a valuation of 5,000,000 euros.
What does Parol do?
The platform transcribes in real time the conversation between the doctor and the patient, in Romanian and English, will detect the change of speakers and autocomplete documents such as the medical record.
The startup already has a team of developers and AI experts working on the final product and working with an informal board of doctors to help develop the product.
Synaptiq
"Synaptiq's most recent funding round was oversubscribed, representing a strong signal of investor confidence in the management team's ability to deliver. The expectation is that Synaptiq's pace of development will accelerate strongly in the coming period."
Synaptiq is a technology platform that wants to reduce the time spent on medical image analysis. The startup is working on the development of the Mediq platform, which reduces the analysis time of medical images in radiotherapy cancer treatment procedures.
The startup announced that it was aiming for a round of 600,000 euros, this being the second round of investments, after the company managed to attract a pre-seed investment worth 250,000 of euros in 2021 from GapMinder VC. At the same time, the company received a non-refundable grant of 158,000 euros from Innovation Norway.
What does Synaptiq do?
The team developed Mediq, a digital solution of high precision and performance, based on the processing of data from medical imaging with the help of Artificial Intelligence. Designed and developed in collaboration with reputable doctors and prestigious clinics, the solution reduces the time required to identify and delineate organs at risk and tumors from the current average of 2-4 hours to a maximum of 5 minutes.
Mediq enables radiotherapy specialists to rapidly identify and delineate tumors and organs at risk, to quickly make the best treatment decisions and thus increase the chances of survival for millions of patients worldwide.
