Digestive health issues are an increasingly common struggle for people across the world. It’s something that many silently suffer and don’t receive adequate care for. Cara Care is on a mission to change this – giving everyone access to digestive healthcare via their phones and they’ve just cored €6.6 million.
With a commitment to holistic approaches to healthcare, Berlin-based healthtech startup Cara Cara has just raised €6.6 million for its digital digestive care solution. Developed by medical experts, the solution brings together behavioural, microbial and nutritional data. The company are also announcing that James Mapes has been appointed as the new CEO.
The funding was led by family-owned international food and nutrition manufacturer Dr. Schär AG, alongside existing investors Sabadell Asabys and Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC, Inc.
Founded in 2016, Care Care is a pioneering digital health company that is helping people manage common digestive problems. The solution was developed by physicians and continues to be managed by a team of medical experts, including nutritionists, psychologists, and other specialists. Currently, the main product is the Care Care for IBS app (which can now be prescribed by a doctor) with additional medical devices available for heartburn-related conditions and chronic inflammatory bowel diseases (Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis) on the market.
The Cara Care app takes a holistic approach, combining innovative research knowledge on gastrointestinal health from clinical practice with technology that makes treatment personalized, motivating, and always available via smartphone. The app analyses individual symptoms to provide tailored therapy aimed at improving quality of life. According to the health tech startup, 73% of users experience a clinically-relevant improvement of symptoms. Concomitant symptoms, such as anxiety and depression, can also be reduced.
The therapy was recently approved by the German federal health authority as the first reimbursable prescription digital therapeutic in the gastrointestinal space. With the new capital injection, the Cara Care app’s commercialization will be accelerated across Germany and the US, before further expanding into France and other European markets. The team also plan to broaden the portfolio of digital therapeutics within and beyond gastrointestinal health.
Alongside the funding announcement, Cara Care has also just appointed James “Jim” Mapes as new CEO. An experienced healthcare leader, he will join founders Jesaja Brinkmann and Dr. Andre Sommer, and Chief Operating Officer Felix Köhler, in scaling the Cara Care platform.
Dr. André Sommer, managing director and co-founder of Cara Care, as well as a medical doctor, commented: “With Jim’s leadership and this new funding, Cara Care is now better positioned than ever before. We are working hard to improve care for millions of people with gastroenterological diseases who have fallen completely through the cracks of our healthcare systems.”
