PocDoc’s smartphone-based diagnostics aim to enable early detection and intervention in cardio, metabolic and renal diseases.
British digital diagnostics startup PocDoc has secured over $6 million in a pre-Series A funding round, bringing its total funding to more than $12 million to date. The company’s technology enables patients to use smartphone-based diagnostics to revolutionize access to screening for the world’s most debilitating chronic diseases.
The oversubscribed funding round was led by MMC Ventures, Molten VC, Simplyhealth Ventures and KHP Ventures, and will be used to support PocDoc’s expansion into new international markets next year. The company says it also plans to develop new tests for metabolic, kidney and whole-body health.
Founded in 2020 by Steve Roest, Dr Vladimir Gubala and Dr Kiran Roest PocDoc is primarly targeting cardio, metabolic and renal (CMR) diseases, which are the leading cause of deaths worldwide and place significant strain on healthcare systems. The company aims to identify those at highest risk of these diseases and ensure they receive appropriate treatment in a timely manner. It is estimated that millions of people are living with or at risk of CMR diseases but have never been tested, even though most of these diseases could be prevented through timely intervention.
At the heart of PocDoc’s offering is the Healthy Heart Check, a home test kit that provides fully quantified lipid results, heart age and 10-year risk of cardiovascular disease in under 10 minutes. This test is part of a broader digital end-to-end CMR disease health check pathway that includes a quantified lab-grade cholesterol test, enabling a thorough assessment of an individual’s cardiovascular health.
This year, PocDoc integrated its Healthy Heart Check service into the digital app offered by the UK’s National Health Service (NHS), allowing patients to access cardiovascular disease screening results immediately. The company has also established partnerships with major UK retailers and pharmacies as it seeks to support the growing shift towards digital health, community-based care and preventive medicine.
“Prevention is the lifeblood of our business,” said PocDoc CEO Roest. “Through our screening technology we believe we can drive a fundamental shift in how we treat chronic diseases, helping people detect problems earlier and faster, get treatment sooner, and, in doing so, reduce the burden on under pressure health services.”
PocDoc’s platform combines microfluidic assay (MFA) technology with cloud-based AI diagnostics to deliver digital pathways for disease assessment, diagnosis and treatment. The company claims its patented MFA platform is the first portable, quantitative digital diagnostic test platform capable of performing complex multi-marker interactions to a clinically valid standard. The platform separates blood and plasma on the assay, allowing for rapid analysis of biomarkers that typically require serum samples.
The second component of PocDoc’s approach is a cloud-based diagnostic pipeline that uses advanced AI algorithms to accurately quantify multiple biomarkers from a single assay using smartphone technology. This is then combined with the final element of the company’s offering: the digital infrastructure to enable data visualization, real-time integration with Electronic Health Records, population health management and dynamic clinical workflows.
“As proven by our growing list of partnerships in both public and private sectors and the tens of thousands of people that have already benefitted from PocDoc’s diagnostics, we’re already making a massive impact,” added Roest. “But the good news is that we’re only just getting started. We have new tests for metabolic, kidney and whole body health in the pipeline, and we’ll be scaling into new international markets next year.”
