UpHill, a Portuguese technology company that orchestrates and automates care journeys for hospitals and patients, successfully closed a new investment round of €7 million. Two new investors – Explorer and the joint Social Impact fund of Redstone and EnjoyVenture – led the operation, along with existing investors Brighteye Ventures and Maze, accompanied by historic investors Caixa Capital and Grupo Luz Saúde. The Series A round will accelerate UpHill’s ability to scale internationally.
In recent months, amid a particularly challenging period for healthcare systems marked by numerous difficulties in meeting patient needs, Uphill expanded its market presence partnering with Spanish and Portuguese hospitals including the largest hospital units in Portugal, covering approximately 25% of the Portuguese population.
Eduardo Freire Rodrigues, co-founder, and CEO of UpHill, credits the company’s traction with hospitals and investors alike to Uphill’s innovative technology and proven ability to increase healthcare team capacity and improve clinical outcomes for patients. He said:
“UpHill enhances access to high-quality healthcare by functioning as an autopilot for doctors and nurses. This boosts the capacity of healthcare teams, such as doubling post-surgical follow-up capabilities or automating tasks to save each professional an entire working day per month. Notably, in terms of clinical outcomes, especially in managing chronic patients, UpHill enhances these results. For instance, it significantly reduces hospital readmissions by up to 65%. In recent years, our technology has seen a significant and consistent evolution, focusing on three main aspects: adaptability to specific clinical contexts and needs, increased automation capabilities, and improved integration into highly complex technological structures, by using advanced standards for exchanging and interpreting clinical data.”
Founded in 2015, UpHill represents each patient in a digital clinical journey visible to multidisciplinary teams across healthcare units. The software features include: remote monitoring, information analysis and interpretation from several systems and patients themselves, patient stratification and alert generation, creation, and update of clinical records– including automatically performed actions – and assignment of specific tasks to each professional.
by João Caro Sousa, Investment Professional at Explorer, said: “We are thrilled to contribute to Uphill Health’s future endeavors, collaborating on the creation of cutting-edge tools that significantly enhance users’ access to superior healthcare. Our commitment involves working closely with existing stakeholders, with the shared goal of propelling Uphill Health to become a prominent force in the European healthcare sector.”
Lucas Paul, Investment Director at Redstone, added: “Globally, healthcare providers are struggling to keep up with patients’ needs and improved medical efficiency is paramount to ensuring high-quality healthcare coverage. UpHill has proven to be able to augment the capacity of hospitals as well as the quality of treatment outcomes.”
Current investors emphasize the company’s impact on clinical outcomes. “UpHill makes best practice into standard practice for hospitals. It delivers tremendous ROI for patients, professionals and healthcare institutions alike by automating guidance and follow-up at key moments in patients’ care journeys. We expect these benefits to only increase as the product evolves in the coming months and years, and we’re excited to continue accompanying UpHill,” commented Ben Wirz, Founding Partner of Brighteye, which has strengthened its investment, alongside Maze.
“UpHill’s vision to empower healthcare teams to deliver the best care is an opportunity for us to have a large-scale impact at a time when healthcare systems are facing efficiency and quality challenges all across Europe. The UpHill team has strong leadership and it has been inspiring for us to work together to fulfill this vision,” said António Miguel, Managing Partner of the MSM impact fund, co-managed by Maze. Caixa Capital and Luz Saúde also participated in the operation.
In addition to product development, the funding round will support the company’s aggressive expansion plans. UpHill aims to double its team by the end of the year, meaning hiring around thirty profiles. Software engineering, biomedical engineering, business development, hospital project management, and design are some of the positions already open in Portugal and abroad.
This is UpHill’s third investment round, bringing the total amount of capital raised by the company to €12 million. Besides working with major healthcare units in Portugal, the company is already present in Spain, collaborating with the Guttmann Institute, a Barcelona hospital that is a European reference center in neurorehabilitation. Late last year UpHill also launched Liber, a digital health service aiming to democratize access to the best healthcare through a mobile app available 24/7.
