Kiwi healthtech startup Carepatron banks NZ$1.6m pre-seed round from Blackbird to ramp up global growth

Kiwi healthtech software platform Carepatron has raised NZ$1.6 million in pre-seed funding to develop its collaborative health workspace

The round was led by trans-Tasman VC Blackbird. The Kiwi startup has bootstrapped until now and will use the cash injection to grow its global team and deliver its product and growth vision.

Carepatron was founded by David Pene and Jamie Frew, who both have more than a decade’s experience building software products and global user communities. Their experience allowed them to see first hand how poorly-served health professionals are by software, alongside frontline experience.

Frew helped his family with their community hospital in his youth while Pene observed his partner, a doctor, work across small teams and practices.

They launched Carepatron in late 2021, and its user community has expanded quickly to more than 700 health teams and continues to increase its growth rate with two-thirds of its community based in the US and Asia. The platform is already used in more than 30 countries across North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific.

The organisations using it range from solo practitioners to teams of 100-plus. Frew, Carepatron’s CEO, said the platform reduces the health software costs for solo practitioners and teams by an average of 74%.

“Health teams play a critical role in our communities, but often don’t have access to the tools they need to deliver more collaborative and better health outcomes,” he said.

“Instead, they often rely on paper forms, manual processes, word docs, and legacy software to get by. We believe that the best way to better health is by bringing practitioners and clients together in one collaborative health workspace.”

His colleague and the startup’s CTO, David Pene, said it also delivers some other astonishing benefits, with 90% of its community are saving 8+ hours of administrative work a week, while also reducing client no-shows by 96%. The platform also reduces the time required by clients to access a service by 91%, and to pay for a service by 98%. More than half of all usage is on mobile devices.

“We promise to save health professionals one day every week by reducing the time spent on busy admin work like booking and rescheduling client appointments, responding to emails, and generating bills,” Pene said.

Blackbird Principal Phoebe Harrop said that as people increasingly taking their health into their own hands, they’re looking for more affordable and streamlined services to book and pay on.

“By allowing people to access the experts they need, Carepatron reduces the frictions associated with getting timely care.” said

“We are really excited to support Jamie and David on their journey to supercharge hundreds of thousands of health professionals around the world with loveable practice management software.”