Elsa Science, an app for patients with arthritis, skips its home market of Sweden and launches directly to the US market. The company is now taking in an investment from the venture capital company Health Cap and existing investors.
Elsa Science is raising an investment of SEK 38.7 million, approximately €3,8M . The round is led by Swedish venture capital fund Health Cap, which invests in life science companies, along with existing investors such as Finnish Inventure, Crowberry Capital from Iceland, Norrsken VC.
Elsa Science wants to personalize care for chronically ill people, something that often lacks the resources and systems to do today. With the company’s app, patients should be able to log their symptoms to explore what can make them feel better. The goal is for the care provider to be able to follow patients remotely in order to be able to adapt the treatment much faster if required. Something that can save money, time and expensive treatments.
“A patient with a rheumatic disease spends about 1 hour physically in care per year, but almost 9,000 hours in self-care. We want to take advantage of all those hours and ensure that healthcare has access to that information “, says Sofia Svanteson, co-founder and CEO of Elsa Science.
The company is developing the service in collaboration with Swedish researchers and the Swedish patient associations, but has chosen not to release the service commercially in Sweden at the moment.
“We learn a lot from the Swedish healthcare system and the Swedish patient associations, and Sweden is far ahead in rheumatology, but it will take many years before we can receive compensation in the Swedish healthcare model,” says Sofia Svanteson.
Instead, Elsa Science chooses to start a study with a small group of patients at a clinic in the city of Franklin in the state of Wisconsin in the United States.
“We are in such an exciting situation now that we are skipping Sweden and going directly to the USA,” says Sofia Svanteson.
