Getting a capital injection of over €3.2 million, Swedish startup Bemlo is aiming to tackle the growing labour shortage in Europe’s healthcare systems. The company is now aiming to expand into new markets.
Across Europe, healthcare systems are under immense pressure. A combination of having to manage a global pandemic, funding gaps and inefficient processes have left the healthcare sector on its knees. As a result, healthcare personnel have been themselves bearing the burden of increased pressure and stress. They’ve been facing increasingly challenging working conditions and, unsurprisingly, a labour shortage is emerging as healthcare personnel turn away from the industry.
Aiming to solve the crisis, Stockholm-based startup Bemlo has just raised about €3.2 million in a Seed round.
The funding
The funding was backed by Y Combinator, Long Journey Ventures, Uncommon Capital, and a group of angel investors that include Dropbox co-founder Arash Ferdowsi, BloomTech co-founder Austen Allred and Top executives from the Swedish digital health startup Kry.
The new investment will be used to fuel further expansion of Bemlo in existing and new markets in Europe. In addition to the home market Sweden, Bemlo have established operations in Norway and the UK during this year.
Bemlo: Tackling a healthcare crisis
Founded in 2020, Bemlo has been part of the Silicon Valley-based startup accelerator Y Combinator. The healthtech startup offers a marketplace for short-term staffing of healthcare personnel.
Bemlo connects nurses and doctors with care providers to fill temporary and longer vacancies. The startup collaborates with several care providers and staffing agencies to increase the transparency of all available short-term positions in different markets. As a result, the platform is able to support healthcare employers such as primary care clinics, hospitals, and nursing homes to secure their staffing within 24 hours instead of the current three-month lead-time.
Benjamin Waye, CEO, and co-founder of Bemlo said: “By providing a marketplace for short-term positions, we can match the right healthcare professionals with available short-term positions and address the current workforce shortage in healthcare. We are very proud to bring in top investors that share our vision of improving transparency and increasing efficiency within healthcare”.
It’s reported a growth of more than 20% month-on-month in the first half of 2022 – reflecting that there is clear market demand for its product.
Benjamin Waye added: “Today, tens of thousands of nurses and doctors use Bemlo to search, find and compare different short-term positions in healthcare. We have been able to lower the thresholds and increase transparency within the industry, which allows for more informative decision-making”.
Lee Jacobs, founder, and General Partner at Long Journey Ventures said: “I’m impressed by what the team at Bemlo have accomplished in a short period of time and look forward to following their journey to better the work lives of healthcare workers in more European markets”.
