Diabetes app on prescription – Potsdam start-up receives 68 million euros
Mark Jenkins, Kai Eberhardt and Manuel Baumann manage Oviva’s 400 employees
Those: Oviva
The start-up Oviva has developed a health app. Users who suffer from intolerance or diabetes can use it to change their eating habits – at the expense of health insurance. The company now wants to continue growing with a second application.
Es is one of the largest sums in the German health tech sector: The Potsdam start-up Oviva has completed a financing round worth the equivalent of 68 million euros (80 million dollars). Since it was founded in 2014, investors have put a total of almost 100 million euros into the digital nutritionist.
In addition to existing shareholders such as the Berlin VC Earlybird, Eight Roads Ventures from London and the Swiss healthtech investor MTIP, two financially strong investors took part in Series C: Temasek, the investment company of the Singapore government, and Sofina, a listed investment company from Belgium.
Both companies primarily finance large, often listed, Firkej, which collect several hundred million euros in one round. Oviva is still a long way from that. “But with the financing rounds come the expectations,” says co-founder and CEO Kai Eberhardt in an interview with “Gründerszene”.
Oviva-App prescribed by medical professionals
He founded the app start-up in 2014 together with developer Manuel Baumann and doctor Yves Nordmann. Nordmann left Oviva in 2016 to found two more healthcare companies. Instead, Mark Jenkins has taken on the role of expert.
The app is aimed at users who want to change their eating habits because they suffer from intolerance, obesity or diabetes, for example. Around 280 permanent consultants support the patients with personal recommendations. Since it was launched seven years ago, Oviva has reported that it has treated over 200,000 people.
If your doctor has prescribed nutritional advice, you can have the costs reimbursed by your health insurance company. Many insurance companies also offer the app as a preventive measure. For a three-month coaching session, users then pay a maximum of 80 euros.
Oviva is financed by this amount and the benefits of the health insurance companies. They give around 100 to 300 euros per treatment, says CEO Eberhardt.
He doesn’t want to talk about sales. All he says is that the revenue has doubled in the past twelve months compared to the previous period. In the last round of financing in early 2020, there was still talk of 90,000 patients. With over 100,000 new users in one and a half years, that would be a low seven-digit turnover.
The year was successful for Oviva, as digital medical applications such as video consultations were better accepted and the focus on long Covid symptoms was strengthened, the co-founder continues.
Soon one of three certified diabetes apps
At the beginning of this year, the Oviva app was certified as a medical device – an expensive and long process. Usually, transplants, visual aids and software are awarded as such. For apps, labeling is a necessary step in order to be recognized by the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM) as a digital health application (Diga).
The agency approved the concept App on prescription almost a year ago. “We have submitted a diga and are now waiting for feedback,” said Eberhardt. “Hopefully our application will be approved in the next few months.”
For Oviva, that would be a second app and thus a second source of income. The Oviva direct tool is intended only for people with obesity and diabetes, i.e. more targeted advice.
Doctors can then specifically prescribe this application, which restricts competition. So far, according to the official list, there are only two apps in the area that are approved by the BfArM.
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