Porto digital health startup positions itself to be a leader in Europe

Porto's digital health startup, Tonic App, which makes doctors' day-to-day work easier by aggregating the resources they need on a single platform, aims to become the first medical platform present in the five largest European health markets.

The company has just closed an EUR 10.85 million investment round, which will allow it to consolidate its position in Spain, Italy and France, where it already operates, followed by the United Kingdom and Germany, which it plans to enter in the upcoming two years.

The Tonic App has been pioneering in Europe in launching a virtual assistant for doctors based on generative artificial intelligence (genAI), already used by 25,900 doctors, and expects to be certified as a medical device by September. In the second quarter of 2024, the Tonic App will launch the Tonic Scribe tool, which enables the automatic transcription of consultations and the creation of clinical notes.

The amount raised represents an important growth driver for the Tonic App to consolidate the markets where it already operates, expand into new geographies and enlarge the team for rapid and sustained business growth. The startup will hire senior talent for its sales team and invest in operations.

The company is investing heavily in research and development (R&D), with a particular focus on generative artificial intelligence. The platform developed by the company is currently used by more than 140 thousand doctors in four countries: Portugal, Spain, Italy and France.

From Porto to the world

The company currently has 36 employees and was co-founded in Porto in 2016 by Daniela Seixas, managing director, and Andrew Barnes, Christophe de Kalbermatten and Dávid Borsós, fellow students on an executive MBA at IE Business School.

As a 360º platform for doctors, which aggregates knowledge and clinical decision support tools, educational content, a video consultation system, job vacancies, among other useful resources for professionals' daily lives, the Tonic App is currently the digital platform most used by doctors in Portugal and is positioned to become the leading medical platform in Europe.

The company was named by Forbes magazine as one of 60 female-led start-ups that are 'shaking up technology around the world'.

In 2023, it was one of three Portuguese apps selected by Google Play from among two million apps worldwide as part of its #WeArePlay campaign, an initiative that acknowledges the stories of apps driven by meaningful purposes.

The Tonic App was recently selected for the 'LeapUp' open innovation programme developed by AbbVie, in partnership with Nova SBE Co.Innovation Lab, which aims to promote and explore the opportunities brought about by collaborative innovation through technological tools that facilitate and enhance disease management from the perspective of both the healthcare professional and the patient. The Tonic App was one of five startups selected among 59 applicants from 17 different European countries.