Get Well Soon – a pioneering healthcare startup committed to help patients access medical specialists and self-pay healthcare quickly and easily – has successfully secured £400k of additional investment from the West Midlands Equity Co-Investment Fund.
Led by Midven – part of Future Planet Capital and a key player in supporting high-growth companies in the Midlands – the investment round saw additional support from new and existing investors, including the Midlands Engine Investment Fund (MEIF).
The FPC managed West Midlands Co-Investment Fund (WMCO), which was set up by the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) and the West Midlands Pension Fund last year, is investing £201k. The WMCO was set up to provide innovative businesses with equity of up to £1m, helping them to expand and grow the region’s industries of the future.
The funding will provide Get Well Soon with the resources to further expand its innovative platform linking self-pay patients with private hospitals, clinics, and surgeons to help tackle the growing demand for self-pay surgery in the UK. Offering a market-disrupting remedy to address the long waiting lists and inefficiencies in the healthcare industry, Get Well Soon is a quicker, more efficient, and – most importantly – clearly priced and impartial booking platform for patients who are no longer willing to wait for elective surgery. Part of the Medmin Group, a medical business based in the West Midlands that supports surgeons in running their practices and helping patients to find the treatment they need, Get Well Soon is the first and only private healthcare independent booking platform of its kind in the UK.
Now, thanks to this interim funding, Get Well Soon plans to expand its range of procedures and already-impressive roster of leading clinicians. With 50 surgeons already onboard – offering treatments including orthopedics, urology, general surgery and diagnostic procedures – Get Well Soon currently attracts over 3,000 visitors a month who are searching for quick and easy access to book a private surgeon and hospital for their elective procedure.
“We’re thrilled to have successfully closed our funding round and want to extend our thanks to Midven for believing in Get Well Soon’s vision. With this investment, we’ll be able to continue enhancing the healthcare industry, providing an accessible, transparent and completely patient-centric platform that empowers patients with the most vital thing: choice. “Since going live earlier this year, Get Well Soon has had a huge impact for people in the Midlands who’ve had their lives clipped by injury and discomfort: removing the hoops that patients are expected to jump through when trying to book self-pay diagnostics and elective surgery. Now, as we grow, we’ll be able to give even more patients access to the information they need to make the best choice for them.”
Simon Radley, CEO and Co-Founder of Get Well Soon
This investment underscores Midven’s commitment to supporting innovative solutions addressing critical challenges. Get Well Soon joins a host of HealthTech startups in Midven’s portfolio. By backing Get Well Soon, Midven is helping to shape the future of healthcare in the UK, driving innovation that puts patient choice and price transparency at the heart of the healthcare experience.
“Get Well Soon offers an exciting opportunity to disrupt the delivery of elective private healthcare in the UK. Their direct-to-consumer model, with a strong emphasis on information, speed and convenience, is poised to facilitate faster and more accessible private medical procedures, whilst meeting the growing demand from self-pay patients.”
Daniel Gaize, Investment Associate at Midven
To find out more, visit https://getwellsoon.co.uk/
Founded in 2018 by one of the UK’s most highly regarded colorectal surgeons, Get Well Soon is part of the Medmin Group, a medical business based in the West Midlands that supports surgeons in running their practices and helps more than 2,500 patients each year to find the treatment they need. Five years on they are now one of the largest groups of surgeons in the UK. Get Well Soon’s service offering includes everything from orthopedics, such as hip joint steroid injections and hip and knee replacement; general surgery, like hemorrhoid banding, hernia repair, gallbladder surgery, and halo procedures; and urology, including kidney stone removal, circumcision, and vasectomy. In addition, Get Well Soon offers patients peace of mind in the form of diagnostic procedures, such as colonoscopies, cystoscopies, sigmoidoscopy, and gastroscopy. The first of its kind in the UK, Get Well Soon is paving the way for a more transparent healthcare system with its cutting-edge ‘look and book’ user-friendly website.
For more than 25 years, leading Birmingham-based venture capital firm Midven has been supporting Midlands SMEs, investing more than £90m into the region and raising over £200m co-investment into its portfolio. Midven’s ‘more than money’ approach helps to build strong and successful companies and support businesses every step of the way. Midven continues to extend its reach to invest in the Midlands’ most ambitious entrepreneurs through its appointment to manage the £25 million West Midlands Co-Investment Fund. Midven was acquired by Future Planet Capital in April 2021.
Future Planet Capital
Future Planet Capital Limited is an impact-led venture capital firm built to back growth companies from the world’s top universities and research ecosystems. Founded in Britain with a global outlook and reach, FPC manages over $450m for public and private investors and has deployed a further $200m of co-investment. It manages the UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund, a national seed investment fund backed by UK Research and Innovation, the Ministry of Defence, the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology and other public bodies. It is also a major regional investor, managing both the Midlands Engine Investment Fund (MEIF) for the British Business Bank and the West Midlands Co-Investment Fund (WMCO) for their local combined authority. Other clients include The Royal County of Berkshire Pension Fund, UK Research and Innovation, Defence Science and Technology Laboratory and The Government of Monaco.
With 140 portfolio companies across geographies and stages, FPC’s mission is to invest in high-growth companies solving global challenges. Mapped against the UN Sustainable Development Goals, these include climate change, education, health, security, and sustainable growth. Future Planet Capital’s unique algorithm tracks over 500,000 inputs to systematically score and benchmark the world’s most innovative companies. Over the past 25 years, it has been the founding investor in 8 unicorns and profitably exited over 60 businesses.
West Midlands Co-Investment Fund
In March 2023 Midven was appointed the fund manager for the £25m West Midlands Co-Investment Fund. The fund has been set up by the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) in partnership with the West Midlands Pension Fund to invest equity of up to £1m in innovative high growth SMEs in the WMCA area. Operating over a 10-year period, the fund will also focus on bringing new private investor money to the region, and using a co-investment model will invest alongside business angels and other private sector investors on a minimum £1 to £1 basis.
Midlands Engine Investment Fund (MEIF)
The Midlands Engine Investment Fund will invest in Debt Finance, Small Business Loans, Proof-of-Concept and Equity Finance funds, ranging from £25,000 to £2m, specifically to help small and medium sized businesses secure the funding they need for growth and development.
The Midlands Engine Investment Fund is operated by British Business Financial Services Limited, wholly owned by British Business Bank, the UK’s national economic development bank. Established in November 2014, its mission is to make finance markets for smaller businesses work more effectively, enabling those businesses to prosper, grow and build UK economic activity.
The Midlands Engine Investment Fund is supported by the European Regional Development Fund, the European Investment Bank, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and British Business Finance Limited, a British Business Bank group company.
The MEIF covers the following LEP areas: Black Country, Coventry & Warwickshire, Greater Birmingham & Solihull, Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire, The Marches, and Worcestershire in the West Midlands; and Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham & Nottinghamshire (D2N2) Greater Lincolnshire, Leicester & Leicestershire, and South-East Midlands in the East and South-East Midlands.
The project is receiving up to £78,550,000 of funding from the England European Regional Development Fund as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020. The programme will continue to run until the end of 2023.
The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government is the Managing Authority for the European Regional Development Fund. Established by the European Union, the European Regional Development Fund helps local areas stimulate their economic development by investing in projects which will support innovation, businesses, create jobs and local community regenerations. For more information visit www.gov.uk/european-growth-funding.
The European Investment Bank is providing £122,500,000 to support the Midlands Engine Investment Fund. This follows backing for the Northern Powerhouse in 2017 and backing for the newly launched North East Fund. The funds in which Midlands Engine Investment Fund invests are open to businesses with material operations in or planning to open material operations in the West Midlands and East & South-East Midlands.
The British Business Bank has published the Business Finance Guide (in partnership with the ICAEW, and a further 21 business and finance organisations). The guide, which impartially sets out the range finance options available to businesses and provides links to support available at a regional level, is available at https://thebusinessfinanceguide.co.uk
The British Business Bank is the UK government’s economic development bank. Established in November 2014, its mission is to make finance markets for smaller businesses work more effectively, enabling those businesses to prosper, grow and build UK economic activity. Its remit is to design, deliver and efficiently manage UK-wide smaller business access to finance programmes for the UK government.
The British Business Bank’s core programmes support nearly £8bn of finance to almost 94,800 smaller businesses. Since March 2020, the British Business Bank has also launched four new Coronavirus business loan schemes, delivering almost £73bn of finance to around 1.6m businesses.
As well as increasing both supply and diversity of finance for UK smaller businesses through its programmes, the Bank works to raise awareness of the finance options available to smaller businesses. The British Business Bank Finance Hub provides independent and impartial information to businesses about their finance options, featuring short films, expert guides, checklists and articles from finance providers to help make their application a success.
In light of the coronavirus pandemic and EU Exit, the Finance Hub has expanded, and it now targets a wider business audience. It continues to provide information and support for scale-up, high growth and potential high growth businesses, but now provides increased content, information, and products for businesses in survival and recovery mindsets. The Finance Hub has been redesigned and repositioned to reflect this, during this period of economic uncertainty.
British Business Bank plc is a public limited company registered in England and Wales, registration number 08616013, registered office at Steel City House, West Street, Sheffield, S1 2GQ. It is a development bank wholly owned by HM Government. British Business Bank plc and its subsidiaries are not banking institutions and do not operate as such. They are not authorised or regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) or the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). A complete legal structure chart for the group can be found at www.british-business-bank.co.uk.
