London-Based Anima Raises $2.5 Million to Reduce Preventable Deaths

By Jemima McEvoy | Sunday, 11 April 2021 | Startup, Health & Wellness

Anima has raised $2.5 million in a seed funding round. The London-based startup has the goal of reducing deaths that could have been prevented with improved efficiency in the healthcare system. The company is new on the scene, having recently graduated from California-based startup accelerator Y Combinator, and faces a competitive industry. However, the company now has the capital it needs to compete.

What Is Anima?

The company was founded in June of last year by two Cambridge University alumni: Rachel Mumford and Shun Pang. Before launching Anima, the duo worked at the UK’s Treasury, but were both driven to start the company due to their own personal experiences with failures in the healthcare system. According to Crunchbase, Mumford lost her grandmother to an infection that could have been diagnosed through basic screening questions, while Pang saw similar issues while working as a primary care doctor in London.

From there, Anima was born. The medical triage startup relies on automated total triage to deliver expedited care to patients. Instead of waiting for an appointment, people looking for care receive an actionable report from Anima within 24 hours. “We want to catch health problems in people as early as possible, get them seen by a doctor and reduce the time they wait to do that to under 24 hours,” Pang told Crunchbase.

Money and Investors

The healthcare startup has raised a total of $2.6 million for its business since it was launched, according to Pang. The majority of that money came in its recently closed round. However, the company also raised $125,000 in March 2021 from Y Combinator. It’s unclear when the rest of the money from that sum was raised by the business.

The biggest round of fundraising by far was the seed round reported this month, which brought in $2.5 million for the business. This capital injection for the company was led by Hummingbird Ventures, a Belgium-based venture capital fund for high-growth digital media and software companies. The medical triage startup also received money from Amino Collective — a VC focused on software, biology, and healthcare startups — as well as a group of angel investors.

The Future of Anima

The startup is in a market with plenty of potential. In fact, a Frost & Sullivan study found the US care coordination software market is expected to be worth $3.18 billion by 2022. This leaves plenty of room for new startups to get their foot in the door. However, Anima is not the only new company seeking entry.

The healthcare business will have to compete with a number of other businesses also focused on reforming this part of the healthcare industry. For example, Los Angeles-based startup Preveta, which focuses on the early detection of serious diseases, recently closed on a $2 million seed round. Meanwhile, Halo Diagnostics, a California-based company, recently raised $19 million in a Series A fundraising round with the stated mission of improving the processes used to diagnose serious illnesses like cancers and dementia.

Final Takeaways

Though the business is not alone competing for a slice of the expanding healthcare market, it now has a good chunk of capital to get it on its way. Furthermore, the medical triage startup managed to catch the eye of prestigious accelerator Y Combinator and boasts the expertise of two apparently experienced founders.