‘More than medicine’ approach working for Elemental Software

22 Jun 2017

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ClearlySo, a London investment bank, has pumped £300,000 into Northern Ireland start-up Elemental Software, which has created a digital healthcare platform.

Leeann Monk-Özgül and Jennifer Neff’s entrepreneurial flair is becoming more and more evident after the Derry-based duo’s Elemental Software hit a new high.

Building a digital healthcare platform to connect every stakeholder in the health industry, the company just secured significant funding.

Raising £300,000 from European investment bank ClearlySo, the duo will now accelerate software development, bolster the start-up’s employee base and expand its marketing efforts.

Elemental Software was created last year, developing a ‘social prescribing’ platform that connects patients, health and social care professionals, and community health and wellness providers.

This allows greater communication between various stakeholders in health, and could lead to different treatments – or treatment programmes – for patients.

Elemental’s platform is aiming to demonstrate “the value and difference that referrals to local exercise, diet and nutrition, and mental support can make to peoples’ lives”.

“We are absolutely delighted that ClearlySo plugged into the Elemental vision for revolutionising the ability to socially prescribe across the health, social care and third sectors,” said the duo.

Elemental Software is not the first ‘tech for good’ company to have emerged from this island. Aid:Tech, for example, uses blockchain technology to track where charitable donations end up.

The company claims that $1.1trn of essential aid is lost through global corruption, while 30pc of the $161bn donated by OECD countries each year simply ‘disappears’.

Elemental Software’s approach to healthcare in the UK is clearly on topic, with the NHS under constant strain to reduce costs.

Stefano Cappanari, investment manager at ClearlySo, said his company is pleased to help fund Elemental’s ‘more than medicine’ approach.

“From grassroots, Monk-Özgül and Neff built a business around the patient, health and social professionals, community-based providers and commissioners, and we are excited that the capital raise – which closed in record time – and capabilities from our network will allow them to take the next step in transforming our care system for better,” he said.

Gordon Hunt was a journalist with Silicon Republic

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