Nelly raises $51 million to digitize medical practices in Europe

Nelly wants to be the largest fintech startup in the healthcare industry. The Berlin-based startup already works with more than 1,200 medical practices in several European countries. But there are thousands more who could benefit from an upgrade to their administrative workflow.

That’s why Nelly recently raised €50 million (about $51 million at current exchange rates) in Series B funding with Notion Capital, led by Cathay Innovation. Existing investors b2venture, Lakestar, Motive Ventures and Arc Investors also participated once again.

While many industries have transitioned to fully digital workflows, Nelly’s founding team realized that many medical practices were lagging behind. “I went to the doctor, I had to fill in all the information with pen and paper. And four weeks later I got a thick letter demanding to pay 120 euros,” Nelly co-founder and CEO Niklas Radner told TechCrunch.

The company started with a software-as-a-service product that allowed medical practices to digitally onboard new patients. Patients make an appointment and then receive a confirmation message via SMS, WhatsApp or email with a link. They can visit that link and fill out their personal information and medical history.

“However, the reality today is that more than 50% of all destinations are still not planned digitally. They’re scheduled with a phone call or just walking into the practice,” said Radner. So patients can scan a QR code to open the Nelly portal from the waiting room.

Behind the scenes, Nelly integrates with existing experience management systems. Data is updated and stored in these legacy systems so that practices do not have to migrate to a completely new system. These connectors are either built in-house by the Nelly team or developed by Nelly’s partners.

This onboarding system acts as the backbone for the rest of the product suite. “You can see Nelly as a Typeform/DocuSign/scheduler for, say, medical practices,” Radner said.

On the patient side, in addition to online ordering and onboarding features, patients can pay for medical practices using online payments or card readers operated by Nelly. Patients can also receive reminders to provide feedback on Google Maps.

When it comes to medical practices, Nelly can handle invoicing and invoicing. This part can save significant time for medical practices because it can lead to less time spent chasing out-of-pocket payments.

Nelly can also be used as an alternative to a corporate bank account with an expense management system and corporate credit cards. Finally, Nelly offers factoring for instant payments of outstanding claims.

These strong integrations into the patient journey and medical practice back-office systems create a barrier to entry for other fintech companies. Nelly has also passed data protection certifications. “We are the first digital invoicing company in Germany in the medical space,” Radner said.

The product is currently available in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. It recently expanded to Italy, with more countries on the way.

“Nelly works with the largest DSOs (dental service organizations) in Europe… And we won the contract for Colosseum Dental Group, which operates in 11 European countries. And they want to expand to 700 locations with Nelly,” Radner said. “So we’re going to expand into more markets in Europe with our customers.”