Pitchfest finalist Little Journey secures £6m Series A funding
- Pitchfest finalist Little Journey has secured in a £6m in Series A funding, led by Par Equity
- Little Journey's digital eSupport platform is designed to psychologically prepare children and families for healthcare interactions
- The investment will help to scale its operations worldwide and fund product enhancements
Digital Health Rewired Pitchfest finalist Little Journey has announced £6 million in Series A funding for its platform to help transform paediatric care through personalised psychological support.
Little Journey reached the 2022 final of the annual Pitchfest competition for digital health startups, for its digital eSupport platform designed to psychologically prepare, inform and support children and families before, during and after healthcare interactions.
The Series A funding round, led by Edinburgh and Leeds-based venture capital firm Par Equity, will be used to accelerate Little Journey’s mission to improve healthcare for children globally.
Chris Evans, cofounder and chief executive of Little Journey, said: “Securing this investment allows us to scale our impact across healthcare and life sciences, with a focus on easing the burden of paediatric clinical trials.”
He added that specialist paediatric knowledge is lacking in the industry and has led to “lower recruitment, adherence and trial completion rates compared to adult research”.
“Little Journey is uniquely positioned to fill this expertise gap and tackle these challenges to advance global paediatric medicine,” Evans said.
The funding will help to scale Little Journey’s operations worldwide with a focus on the US healthcare market and will also fund product enhancements, including the developing of Little Journey’s scalable content plus interoperability and data collection capabilities.
These advancements are aimed at enabling healthcare and life science organisations to adopt more data-focused, patient centric approaches to care and decision making, which will improve outcomes for paediatric patients globally.
Sophie Copley, cofounder and chief product officer at Little Journey, said: “Little Journey already tailors support based on age, language, procedure, and trial protocol.
“With this Series A funding, we will enhance our data capabilities and further globalise our offering, enabling a data-driven, personalised model of care in paediatrics.
“This will drive impact for our growing international customer base in a patient-centric way. By empowering families with the right knowledge and resources at the right time, we believe we can help build a brighter, healthier future for all children across the globe.”
Additional investment was made by Mercia Ventures, the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund I, Octopus Ventures, Calm/Storm Ventures, and angel investors with expertise in healthcare and life sciences.
Elizabeth Young, investment manager at Par Equity, said: “Health tech is at the heart of what we do at Par Equity. We are committed to supporting high-growth, impactful health tech companies that have the potential to revolutionise the way that care is delivered.
“At present, there exists a pressing need for bespoke technologies tailored to children and Little Journey’s innovative approach to paediatric care does just that.”
Alongside the investment round, the company also secured grant funding, with £2.09m from the LEGO Foundation’s Play for All Accelerator and £493,000 from SBRI Healthcare.
These funds will support Little Journey’s ongoing projects, including enhancing app accessibility for children with disabilities and partnering with the LEGO Foundation to co-create solutions with neurodivergent children.
In August 2024, Little Journey’s app went live at Walsall Manor Hospital to help young patients prepare for surgery or treatment.
