BCB Medical, the Nordic market leader in gathering and analysing clinical data, has raised new capital from a group of high quality institutional investors led by Standout Capital and Tesi. The investors will support BCB Medical’s continued growth in the Finnish market and the launch of BCB’s quality register software and clinical data products internationally.
“Thanks to Standout Capital and Tesi’s investment, we will have more resources to serve the Finnish healthcare market and invest in new services and markets related to analysing and comparing clinical data. Our aim is to spread best practices in outcome-based healthcare, which will improve the quality of treatments and achieve a better quality of life for patients,” says BCB Medical’s Managing Director, Petteri Viljanen.
According to Viljanen, technology in healthcare is advancing at a fast pace across all specialist fields. That is why the continuous development of software requires resources and new expertise. BCB’s quality registers include among others diseases cancers, musculoskeletal diseases and heart diseases.
“With this investment, we will double our personnel from 50 to 100 employees in Finland over the next three years. At the same time, we will expand the coverage of our quality registries from the current 60 disease groups to 100, which can be considered an achievement even on an international scale,” Viljanen points out.
In November 2016, the procurement unit formed by Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa (HUS) and KL-Kuntahankinnat chose BCB Medical as the technical supplier of the quality registries with a goal to harmonise treatment quality on a national level.
“As of today, more than 9 000 healthcare professionals in 200 clinics are using our software on a daily basis. The objective is to put in place comparable monitoring in all of Finland’s hospital districts,” says Viljanen.
Finnish model is well advanced
Viljanen stresses that the digital model created in Finland for comparing treatment quality is well advanced on an international level. The company has over the years collected a structured clinical database of 1 million treatments with up to 3 000 data points in each treatment – a highly valuable resource for healthcare professionals as well as medical and drug researchers at universities and pharma companies.
“We have received a lot of enquiries from other countries concerning the quality registries and the clinical data. We are actively looking for the right commercial partners, especially from the Nordic countries, to launch our services internationally. We could follow the footsteps of the Finnish gaming industry in becoming a global phenomenon in our field, the digitalisation of medical information. Our goal is that, in three years’ time, more than 30 per cent of the company’s turnover should be international,” Viljanen says.
Investors prove strong backers for growth and internationalisation
“We are very pleased to have these experienced investors join our team. Standout Capital brings world-class expertise in the growth and internationalisation of technology companies and Tesi, as a significant Finnish anchor owner, its huge networks in both Finland and abroad,” says Viljanen.
“We are impressed with BCB Medical’s success in working closely with the leading Finnish healthcare providers like HUS in developing software that ultimately benefits patients. BCB Medical is a great example of our strategy to partner with outstanding technology companies that are transforming their industries through digitalisation,” says BCB’s new Chairman and Standout Capital’s Partner, Erik Wästlund.
“We want to contribute to strengthening Finland’s key position as a world-leading country in utilising medical information. BCB Medical has long been developing its know-how and products in Finland, and is now ready to take the next step towards the global healthcare ICT market,” says Director Heli Alhroos from Tesi.
Following the investment, Standout Capital became the largest shareholder of BCB Medical and together with Tesi, the majority shareholders. Stockholm based Backstage Invest is also participating in the financing round. Old shareholders will continue as minority shareholders of the company.
For further information:
Petteri Viljanen, Managing Director, BCB Medical, tel. +358 400 727 366, petteri.viljanen@bcbmedical.com
Erik Wästlund, Partner, Standout Capital, tel+ 46 70 755 79 69, erik.wastlund@standoutcapital.com
Heli Ahlroos, Director, Finnish Industry Investment Ltd, tel. +358 40 077 2833, heli.ahlroos@tesi.fi
BCB Medical is the Nordic market leader in gathering and analysing clinical data. Our mission is to combine, analyse and illustrate clinical data gathered from various sources and present it in an understandable format so that current and future generations can live healthier lives. Our vision is to revolutionise the way clinical data impacts people’s lives. Our turnover amounts to around EUR 4 million, and we employ 53 people. The company’s head office is located in Turku, Finland, and we also have offices in Espoo, Oulu and Tampere. www.bcbmedical.com
Standout Capital is a Stockholm based private equity firm investing in growing tech companies. We have a personal approach and entrepreneurial know-how. The founders and investment team build on personal experience in entrepreneurship, investments and finance. As an active owner, we are personally highly engaged in our firm and the companies we partner with. Our mission is to support outstanding companies to grow and succeed. Standout Capital invests in Nordic growth companies and the digital transformation in business and society. www.standoutcapital.com
Tesi (Finnish Industry Investment Ltd) is a venture capital and private equity company that accelerates companies’ success stories by investing in them directly and via funds. Tesi always invests together with other investors, providing them with access to high quality deal flow in Finland. Our investments under management total 1 billion euros and we have altogether 723 companies in portfolio. www.tesi.fi
