Healthtech startup, Virtue Health Group Limited (Virtue), has secured £1 million in seed funding in an investment round led by the Midlands Engine Investment Fund (MEIF) managed by Midven, part of the Future Planet Capital Group. The company has secured £500,000 from the MEIF as well as further investments from QVentures and a number of business angels.

The investment will allow Virtue to build out the underlying technology required to scale its proven model of virtual wards and roll out the platform to selected NHS trusts. The first diseases that the service will address are chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and heart disease.

Virtual hospital beds, also known as ‘virtual wards’, enable patients to receive acute, specialist healthcare safely and conveniently at home, rather than in a hospital. The virtual wards are underpinned by frequent remote specialist nurse visits and 24/7 monitoring of patient biometric data using smart devices. Virtue’s model will increase the quality of care for patients while reducing hospital overcrowding and cost of care for the challenged NHS. 

NHS treatment waiting time is at an all-time high, with one in eight people in England waiting for care or operations in July 2022, amounting to seven million patients. The high demand for virtual wards will allow Virtue to play a significant role in reducing the care backlog and allow the NHS to help those most in need. 

Virtue is led by a high-profile management team that brings together notable sector leaders. CEO Robert Orford is a serial medtech entrepreneur who has recently led global strategy for Europe’s market share leader in IT & cloud services for healthcare. Chief Medical Officer, Dr Andrew Barlow, conceived and pioneered the UK’s first and largest virtual Covid ward. Dr Barlow is also an NHS respiratory consultant and the Divisional Director for Medicine and Board member at West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. 

Robert Orford, CEO at Virtue Health Group Ltd, said:

“The investment by Midven and QVentures is critical to enabling our pioneering model of virtual hospital care, which will create urgently needed capacity for the UK health system. 

“The investment enables us to scale our proven model which can reduce length of hospital stay by up to 50% and reduce 90-day readmission rates by up to 67%. This is a game changer for the NHS and other global health systems which are struggling with capacity owing to demographic trends.”

Tony Stott, Fund Principal at Midven, said:

“With demands on the NHS ever increasing, the market opportunity for virtual wards is huge. The MEIF investment will allow Virtue to have a significant impact on freeing up bed capacity for critically ill patients and alleviating hospital overcrowding.” 

Mark Wilcockson, Senior Investment Manager at the British Business Bank, said:

“Backing innovative companies is one of the MEIF’s key pillars, and the services that Virtue provides in the health-tech industry is a perfect example of how MEIF funding can support such companies. Investment into start-ups such as this one supports the wider growth of the Midlands region through these contributions in various sectors.” 

Robert Walsh, Managing Partner at QVentures, said:

“We’ve seen the NHS come under extreme pressure due to hospital bed shortages that continue well beyond the peak of COVID. QVentures believes that Virtue effectively addresses this key issue and over the long term, will fundamentally improve the efficiency and efficacy of care within the NHS and beyond. We’re excited to back Robert and his team who bring specialist experience in launching and managing digital wards by running the largest digital ward during COVID.”

The Midlands Engine Investment Fund project is supported financially by the European Union using funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020 and the European Investment Bank.

– ENDS –

MEDIA CONTACTS:

Virtue Global Holdings Ltd

Robert Orford

CEO

[email protected]

Midven

Lauren Towey

Digital Glue
0121 828 9276
[email protected]

About Virtue Health Group Limited 

Established in 2021 by CEO Robert Ord, Virtue Health Group Limited offers an integrated healthtech service that enables earlier discharge of patients from medical care. Its digital solution of virtual hospital wards allows patients greater access to acute care, remote monitoring and treatment they need in their own homes. 

The Virtue model is being piloted at West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals Trust (‘Herts’) with a full virtual ward trialled in patients being discharged early from the respiratory ward. This pilot programme, led by Virtue’s Chief Medical Officer Dr Andrew Barlow, is delivering breakthrough results. 

The management team also includes the former Chief Digital Officer of several prominent NHS trusts, the Chairman of several Midlands-based NHS trusts, a former advisor to the Secretary of State for Health & Social Care, as well as the CEO of the NHS Digital Academy.

For more information, visit: www.virtuehealth.co.uk/

About Midven

For more than 25 years, leading Birmingham-based venture capital firm Midven has been supporting Midlands SMEs, investing more than £60m into the region and raising £200m co-investment into its portfolio. Midven’s ‘more than money’ approach helps to build strong and successful companies and support businesses every step of the way. Midven continues to extend its reach to invest in the Midlands’ most ambitious entrepreneurs through its appointment to manage the £40 million equity portion of the Midlands Engine Investment Fund (MEIF), as well as the launch of the firm’s first Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) fund. Midven was acquired by Future Planet Capital in April 2021. For more information about Midven, please visit www.midven.co.uk.

About Future Planet Capital

Future Planet Capital Limited is a global venture capital and impact investor, connecting

the world’s largest investors to the best minds in order to address global challenges. The firm is focused on providing growth capital to leading entrepreneurs and businesses from the world’s top universities and has deployed over $100M on behalf of institutional investors to date. Future Planet Capital’s goal is to profitably solve the world’s greatest challenges in climate change, education, health, sustainable growth & security. For more information about Future Planet please visit www.futureplanetcapital.com.

About the Midlands Engine Investment Fund (MEIF)

The Midlands Engine Investment Fund will invest in Debt Finance, Small Business Loans, Proof-of-Concept and Equity Finance funds, ranging from £25,000 to £2m, specifically to help small and medium sized businesses secure the funding they need for growth and development.

The Midlands Engine Investment Fund is operated by British Business Financial

Services Limited, wholly owned by British Business Bank, the UK’s national economic development bank. Established in November 2014, its mission is to make finance markets for smaller businesses work more effectively, enabling those businesses to prosper, grow and build UK economic activity.

The Midlands Engine Investment Fund is supported by the European Regional

Development Fund, the European Investment Bank, the Department for

Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and British Business Finance Limited, a British Business Bank group company.

The MEIF covers the following LEP areas: Black Country, Coventry & Warwickshire, Greater Birmingham & Solihull, Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire, The Marches, and Worcestershire in the West Midlands; and Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham & Nottinghamshire (D2N2) Greater Lincolnshire, Leicester & Leicestershire, and South-East Midlands in the East and South-East Midlands.

The project is receiving up to £78,550,000 of funding from the England European

Regional Development Fund as part of the European Structural and Investment

Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020. The programme will continue to run until the

end of 2023.

The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government is the Managing Authority for the European Regional Development Fund. Established by the European

Union, the European Regional Development Fund helps local areas stimulate their economic development by investing in projects which will support innovation,

businesses, create jobs and local community regenerations. For more information

visit www.gov.uk/european-growth-funding.

The European Investment Bank is providing £122,500,000 to support the Midlands

Engine Investment Fund. This follows backing for the Northern Powerhouse in 2017 and backing for the newly launched North East Fund. For further information visit www.eib.org

The funds in which Midlands Engine Investment Fund invests are open to businesses with material operations in or planning to open material operations in the West Midlands and East & South-East Midlands.

The British Business Bank has published the Business Finance Guide (in partnership

with the ICAEW, and a further 21 business and finance organisations). The guide, which impartially sets out the range finance options available to businesses and provides links to support available at a regional level, is available at https://thebusinessfinanceguide.co.uk

About the British Business Bank

The British Business Bank is the UK government’s economic development bank. Established in November 2014, its mission is to make finance markets for smaller businesses work more effectively, enabling those businesses to prosper, grow and build UK economic activity. Its remit is to design, deliver and efficiently manage UK-wide smaller business access to finance programmes for the UK government.

The British Business Bank’s core programmes support nearly £8bn of finance to almost 94,800 smaller businesses. Since March 2020, the British Business Bank has also launched four new Coronavirus business loan schemes, delivering almost £73bn of finance to around 1.6m businesses.

As well as increasing both supply and diversity of finance for UK smaller businesses through its programmes, the Bank works to raise awareness of the finance options available to smaller businesses. The British Business Bank Finance Hub provides independent and impartial information to businesses about their finance options, featuring short films, expert guides, checklists and articles from finance providers to help make their application a success.

In light of the coronavirus pandemic and EU Exit, the Finance Hub has expanded, and it now targets a wider business audience. It continues to provide information and support for scale-up, high growth and potential high growth businesses, but now provides increased content, information, and products for businesses in survival and recovery mindsets. The Finance Hub has been redesigned and repositioned to reflect this, during this period of economic uncertainty.

British Business Bank plc is a public limited company registered in England and Wales, registration number 08616013, registered office at Steel City House, West Street, Sheffield, S1 2GQ. It is a development bank wholly owned by HM Government. British Business Bank plc and its subsidiaries are not banking institutions and do not operate as such. They are not authorised or regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) or the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). A complete legal structure chart for the group can be found at www.british-business-bank.co.uk.

About QVentures

QVentures is a Venture Capital firm providing direct investment opportunities and fund management. QVentures sources, screens, and invests in top-tier start-ups from Seed to Series C for their investor base consisting of Family Offices, Institutional Investors, UHNWIs, and Cashed-out Entrepreneurs. QVentures has participated in rounds with an aggregate combined size of over £351m in 115 companies.