London-based Nolea Health has emerged from stealth today after picking up new investment (£1 million). The startup is on a mission to revolutionise how healthcare providers find talent, addressing the growing supply-demand gap.
Across the world, healthcare providers have been struggling with a common problem – a major talent shortage.
Healthcare systems are under considerable pressure at the moment and the supply-demand gap between clinical staff is growing. Providers are, as a result, struggling to provide care to the people that need it, when they need it. The situation is particularly notable in the mental healthcare sector. It’s an area that has been severely underfunded and underserved, and the consequences are extreme.
Founder Richie Dawes: “Our mental healthcare industry is in crisis. The demand for services is growing, while the supply of skilled professionals is dwindling. Our mission at Nolea Health is to create a revolutionary platform that will change how healthcare providers find talent and healthcare professionals find jobs. With our innovative approach, we believe we can make a real difference in this area and successfully address the urgent issue of staff shortages.”
On a mission to help overcome the staffing problem is Nolea Health. The London-based startup has developed a jobs marketplace for mental healthcare, connecting clinicians with the right vacancies. The startup has just secured £1 million in new investments it launches out of stealth.
The funding was led by Frontline Ventures with participation from Calm/Storm Ventures and other notable industry figures, including Anne Heraty, ex-CEO of CPL Resources, and Mahiben Maruthappu, CEO of Cera.
Calm/Storm Founding Partner, Lucanus Polagnoli: “The Covid-19 pandemic unveiled a broken healthcare system – an increasing number of people report mental health issues, leading to staff shortages, long working hours and burned-out professionals in therapy and beyond. We are excited to see Nolea addressing the core problem of healthcare providers needing help finding enough staff to serve their patients. The innovative white-label clinician marketplace platform also enables clinicians that want work flexibility, multiple work opportunities, access to digital tools, and upskilling opportunities. With Richie’s background in scaling a mental healthcare clinic, we believe the founder-market-fit is exceptional.”
Founded in 2022 by Richard Dawes, Nolea Health is built upon three years of work developing its full-stack virtual care technology. The platform offers a national network of mental healthcare professionals and making them discoverable to the right vacancies and healthcare providers and systems.
Dawes added: “We saw mental healthcare as the ideal starting point, given the tremendous growth in demand in recent years, and the widespread adoption of remote-based care in the post-COVID world. This shift in momentum has created new flexible work opportunities for the full spectrum of mental healthcare professionals, many of whom may have historically been overlooked by healthcare companies because of the demand for accredited healthcare professionals over qualified equivalent healthcare staff roles.”
The platform’s matching algorithm utilises the clinician’s profile data, such as experience, education and work preferences, with employers’ job requirements, location, and work culture, to increase the likelihood of successful matches and hires for short-term work opportunities. Once matched, the company hires the clinician to deliver short-term remote-based and in-person mental healthcare.
The result is a product that streamlines the talent acquisition process for healthcare organisations’ hiring teams and reduces hiring process friction. The startup aims to match vaccines with suitable clinicians within 24 hours. It encompasses a comprehensive clinician directory, containing verified and vetted healthcare professionals, enabling organisations to fast-track candidates to the interview stage.
For the clinicians themselves, it also lets them work on a more flexible basis. They can share their dynamic availability, enabling employers to find suitable candidates for their open positions. Additionally, clinicians can manage all licensing and credential data in one place, saving valuable time on both sides during the onboarding process.
Frontline Ventures Partner, William McQuillan: “Following the outbreak of Covid-19, we’ve seen a huge increase in the use of telemedicine. Whilst this theoretically unlocks a broader range of clinical talent for healthcare centres, the challenge of hiring and managing the right staff remains a significant bottleneck. Nolea solves this by providing a staffing tool that is easy to integrate and scale for any clinic, GP or hospital wishing to utilise telemedicine. Richie’s background in healthcare and his experience in launching marketplaces puts him in prime position to build the perfect solution to this urgent issue.“
Over the past year, the healthtech innovators have been able to receive its first investment check through ODX, the On Deck Global Accelerator program in January 2022 and participating in the Google Black Founder Fund program last summer.
Mariama Boumanjal, Google for Startups Black Founders Fund Manager Europe and Africa: “We are delighted to have played a part in Nolea Health’s journey and to see its positive impact in the healthcare industry. Nolea Health’s innovative approach to addressing mental health challenges is inspiring. We are proud to have supported Nolea Health through our program.”
Nolea Health was also selected for the Digital Launchpad London program this year, designed for early-stage digital health companies with high potential to meet NHS and social care challenges.
With this new funding, the startup plans to expand its team and further develop its machine learning-based technology, doubling down on improving its clinical job-matching capabilities.
Nolea Health also aims to expand its reliable job marketplace beyond mental healthcare to address workforce planning challenges and staff shortages in other areas of healthcare.
Meanwhile, the platform is in beta and building up a growing network of mental healthcare clinicians and leading mental healthcare organisations.
