Often patients with chronic conditions find it challenging to incorporate therapy and treatment into their daily routine. Israeli startup Sweetch wants to make the process easier, and announces a new investment. The company’s round comes 5 years after securing its Seed funding, which included investors such as OurCrowd and Philips.
Helping patients with chronic conditions persist with their treatment
The Sweetch product is primarily focused on helping patients with chronic conditions, such as Diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity and other cardiovascular conditions, and more. These are not patients in need of a one-and-done trip to the hospital, but rather they require long-term medical plans and continuous care, often requiring patients to make drastic changes to their lifestyle. And if you’ve ever signed up for a gym, then you know that perseverance, day-in and day-out, is no simple task to accomplish.
The Sweetch system learns a patient’s behavior by collecting information from their smartphone and other connected devices, as well as through continuous interaction with the patient on a dedicated app. This is where the company’s proprietary technology -- JITAI (Just-In-Time-Adaptive-Intervention) -- steps in to assist. Based on the patient’s data, JITAI creates a personalized program that’s adapted to their needs and routines. The smart platform learns which practices work better than others, providing insight and recommendations according to the patient’s capabilities and medical requirements, in order to help assure their compliance and success in keeping with their plan.
To this end, Sweetch announces securing $20 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Entrée Capital, with participation from Tal Capital, Netherlands-based impact investor Noaber, Brazil-based Kortex Ventures, and Insurtech VC FinTLV Ventures, as well as existing investors Philips, OurCrowd and Qure Ventures. In a conversation with Geektime, Sweetch CEO, Yoni Nevo, explains that the company had been focusing on developing and testing its product for the past 5 years, and wanted to keep minimal cash flow until the testing was done. Now the company appears to be accelerating operations, aiming to rapidly increase growth.
Sweetch started out focusing on the world of diabetes, but today has its hands on a wide variety of chronic conditions. “Our original market was diabetes, so naturally we still operate in the area,” explains Nevo. “However, when examining the healthcare system’s needs, we find that 90% of its expenses are spent on chronic treatment, and it desperately needs a platform to support as many patients and illnesses as possible.” Nevo notes that there’s a common denominator between most chronic conditions. This often includes similar treatments, which are usually based on getting in shape, healthy nutrition, scheduled medication, and other -- and it’s at this point that Sweetch comes in for the assist.
Sweetch was founded in 2013 by Yossi Bahagon, Dan Lichtenfeld, and Dana Chanan. The company’s CEO is Yoni Nevo and its COO is Keren Shavit. Both joined the company as partners, after founding a startup that operated in the same field as Sweetch. The Israeli healthtech company has 30 employees at its Tel Aviv headquarter.
