Clinia co-founders Simon Bédard, Félix La Rocque Carrier and Etienne Soulard-Geoffrion met by chance at a StartUp Fest Digital Health Hackathon event in 2015. They knew they wanted to help solve the digital health accessibility problem – but the path to building Clinia was, as it so often is for entrepreneurs, similar to the data world in healthcare: indirect, unclear, and complex to navigate.
After renting a U-Haul truck to remove his furniture to make space for a giant boardroom table to work at, the three spent a year working out of Bédard’s apartment.
“I became obsessed with untangling the complexity of the healthcare ecosystem,” said Bédard. “We had one metric to measure our success: creating a solution that would help people easily find the information, support, or care that they need.”
The Health Data Problem
They would go on to launch a B2C platform providing structured information for patients which, in less than 3 years, would grow to over 150,000 unique monthly visitors without spending a single dollar on advertising. Used by both patients and clinicians, the B2C directory model would act as a remarkable proof of concept: Canadians were desperate for clearer resources and reliable information on health.
As conversations with healthcare organizations and clinicians continued to develop, one thing became clear: traditional healthcare institutions like hospitals and clinics – primarily publicly-funded – needed help. If clinicians and health professionals could navigate health data effectively, patients would benefit.
Having previously worked at a private healthcare clinic, the complexity of accessibility of resources from the clinician’s side was familiar to Bédard.
“Nobody could navigate the data,” said Bédard. “It was a struggle to identify and unravel the right information needed to properly support patients.”
Clinia co-founders Simon Bédard (left), Etienne Soulard-Geoffrion (middle) & Félix La Rocque Carrier (right).
Complexity Made Simple
The digital health ecosystem required a robust back-end player to transform the results on the front end.
Enter Clinia.
Having pivoted to a B2B model, Clinia evolved into a technology company that develops a suite of solutions that empower organizations to support care teams andpatientsalike with their own personalized search experiences so they can find the resources they need in a far better, more efficient manner.
Clinia’s flagship product is a Search API which can be white-labeled into the existing search flows of healthcare organizations. Combined with their proprietary Directory platform, Clinia empowers health professionals to build out their own robust, easy to navigate, powerful “search stack.” Their Vizion product enables beautiful, fully-customizable UI components for a better search experience, while Clinia’s Search engine product makes complex geo-specific, personalized health search simple.
Today, Clinia counts 25 employees, a robust team of advisors, a notable suite of clients including telemedicine giants Dialogue and Teladoc, as well as Montreal’s CHUM hospital and research centre, among others. Their big vision is a clear one: to become the leader in health search infrastructure globally.
Growth
Clinia’s latest Seed round announcement, totalling $5M CAD, is led by AQC and Anges Québec, with participation by Formentera Capital and private family office investors. Funding from this Seed round will serve to scale the power of their Search API and Directory products while expanding their footprint into two additional enterprise-level verticals, health systems and insurance organizations.
When asked about their decision to bring on Formentera Capital as part of their investment team, Bédard was clear:
“There is a genuine alignment between us,” said Bédard. “We see many of the same challenges and opportunities throughout the wider digital health ecosystem and the experience they bring to the partnership is priceless.” The new investment partnership formalizes the guidance Cherif Habib & the team at Formentera Capital previously provided to Clinia.
Though Clinia’s business model and direction underwent several rounds of iteration, the vision Bédard, Carrier and Soulard-Geoffrion had developed would remain unchanged: efficient access to healthcare information and resources for all. Their mission to change the world’s health ecosystem is well underway.
Formentera Capital is an early-stage venture capital firm investing in tech-enabled companies that are good for the world.
