Swedish healthtech startup Yazen has secured a €19.5m Series A, led by Evli Growth Partners and Helsana HealthInvest, with participation from Almaz Capital and Yabeo, as well as existing investors Luminar Ventures and Aggregate Media.
Founded in 2021 by healthcare professionals behind Swedish digital care startup Min Doktor, Yazen has, like other obesity startups, been riding the upward trend of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro.
It provides a digital service that combines GLP-1 weight-loss and diabetes medications with lifestyle advice and has 20k active users who have collectively lost over 200 tons of weight, the company says.
The new capital is intended to spur Yazen’s international expansion across Europe. Besides Sweden, where it operates, Yazen has soft-launched in the Netherlands, Norway, and Spain, and has pilot projects in the UK and Germany.
Health professionals with dual certifications
Instead of opening offices with local doctors and staff in each country, Yazen has employed healthcare professionals with dual doctor certifications in Sweden and the respective country they are focused on, reducing the cost of expansion.
“We now have around ten healthcare professionals with dual certifications, which is sufficient to serve those international markets at the present stage. When we have an even more significant number of patients, we will establish ourselves locally as well,” says Fredrik Meurling, CEO and cofounder.
The new round of capital will mainly be allocated to marketing, according to Meurling, who notes that “on an operational level in Sweden, we are profitable.”
The company reports an annual recurring revenue of €18m and a team of 150 employees, of whom nearly half are general practitioner clinicians.
Yazen’s Series A is the largest for a European startup prescribing GLP-1 drugs or associated treatment pathways. However, compared to its US competitors — such as Calibrate, which raised $100 million in 2021, and Form Health, which closed a $38 million round in June this year — it remains relatively modest.
Lack of availability of drugs
The supply chain for these drugs has posed challenges for European startups, with manufacturers struggling to meet demand. Last year, UK startups were instructed by the government to halt sales of Ozempic due to shortages affecting diabetic patients, and in Sweden, the Swedish Medical Products Agency has appealed to doctors to prescribe Ozempic only for diabetes, not obesity, due to limited supply.
However, Meurling believes that supply issues will eventually ease in Europe, even as the societal costs of obesity continue.
Obesity is a growing disease across the globe, with one billion people now suffering from it, according to a study published in the medical journal Lancet.
While the solutions developed by Yazen and its competitors may prove profitable, some people question whether European startups can achieve the revenue levels required to raise growth capital and reach unicorn status.
For Meurling, Yazen is undeniably a unicorn in the making.
“The market is there, both in terms of people with obesity and willingness to pay. New payers, such as corporate clients, security companies, or public funding bodies, will emerge for this type of treatment,” he says.
“There will be a significant role for digital specialists who have a holistic perspective and a serious approach to treating obesity by combining medical treatment with lifestyle changes.”
“Yazen is definitely a unicorn case.”
Read the orginal article: https://sifted.eu/articles/ozempic-startup-yazen-raises-series-news/
