• Collaborative healthtech startup, 32Co, has raised $3 million in funding from Balderton to revolutionise access to specialist healthcare.
• In today’s increasingly specialised healthcare landscape, patients often struggle to find providers with the specific expertise they require.
• 32Co’s platform is transforming access to specialist healthcare services by connecting general clinicians with specialist clinicians to bring expertise locally to patients.
• Starting with orthodontics, 32Co pairs dentists with top orthodontic specialists to collaborate on patient cases, unlocking both demand and supply for clear aligner treatment.
• New funding will be used to build out the commercial team and further develop their innovative collaboration platform.

London, 28 June: 32Co has secured $3 million in seed funding, led by Balderton Capital, to advance its innovative approach to accessible specialist healthcare. The health tech platform founded by Dr. Sonia Szamocki is growing rapidly and expanding from its London Headquarters. The funding, which includes participation from Wavemaker 360 Health and strategic angels, will fuel the development of 32Co’s comprehensive clinical collaboration platform with artificial intelligence and prepare to build on new clinical use cases.

32Co is revolutionising access to specialised healthcare services by connecting general clinicians with a network of specialists. In today’s increasingly specialised healthcare landscape, patients often struggle to find providers with the specific expertise they require.
32Co enables patients to access a range of specialist advice and clinical services through their trusted local provider, without the travel, waiting times and often high fees.

Inspired by the virtual care sector, 32Co’s platform brings the specialist to the patient. By facilitating collaboration between generalist and specialist clinicians, they are offering patients the best of both worlds—high-quality clinical care delivered conveniently through their local provider. This unique model scales specialist expertise beyond the confines of a single clinic, instantly generating additional supply through a network of generalist colleagues who already have existing patient relationships. This creates new revenue streams for both generalist and specialist clinicians, whilst simultaneously increasing patient access to specialised services.

Starting with orthodontics, 32Co is transforming the clear aligner industry. Only about a third of dentists offer clear aligner treatments consistently and only a fraction are able to treat more complex cases; with ~60% of patients suffering from malocclusion (misaligned teeth), there is significant unmet patient demand in this space due to constrained supply. To address this issue, 32Co has assembled a team of highly experienced UK-based specialist orthodontists who collaborate directly with dentists worldwide through the platform. Their guidance ensures safe and reliable outcomes, establishing the first real-time, treatment-focused commercial collaboration for clear aligner providers.

Dentists training and working with 32Co report a remarkable 92% increase in confidence on average. Unsurprisingly, this model also results in improved patient outcomes. Traditional non-specialist supported treatment requires an average of two revisions. With 32Co, this occurs in < 5% of cases.
Dr. Sonia Szamocki, the founder and CEO of 32Co, was driven by her own experiences in the healthcare industry to establish the platform. As a doctor educated at Oxford and having worked in London hospitals, she recognized the readily available specialist expertise in hospitals, in stark contrast to the isolation often experienced by clinicians in primary care settings. Driven by a desire to empower general clinicians to provide more specialised care in their communities, 32Co aims to address this unmet patient demand.

Since April 2022, 32Co has grown 5x, with hundreds of dentists signing up each month and over 30% growth attributed to word-of-mouth referrals. The platform has garnered interest from dentists globally, including large dental groups. As a result of the superior outcomes, they are also the only clear aligner platform to have an exclusive partnership with Dental Protection, the world’s leading dental indemnifier.
While initially focused on the clear aligner industry, the company aspires to revolutionise healthcare more broadly, exploring future applications of its innovative model.

“As a specialist orthodontist I love this model, I can work from anywhere through the platform, it’s additional income and I enjoy mentoring colleagues. It’s great to see the progression colleagues make through this mentorship; producing safe and predictable results for our patients”. Dr Farmahan, Specialist Orthodontist

I am very impressed by the quality and efficiency of 32Co’s service. From the expert treatment planning by a specialist orthodontist, to the timely delivery of the aligners, they have exceeded my expectations…The product itself is outstanding compared to other aligner companies in the market. The treatment plans are so precise that our patients rarely need revisions. I’ve been recommending 32Co to all my dentist colleagues and consultancy clients. They all agree that this is the future of clear aligner orthodontics. Dr van der Walt

Dr Sonia Szamocki, founder and CEO of 32Co, said:

“32Co is an all-in-one healthcare platform changing the way healthcare is delivered to patients by scaling specialist expertise beyond the specialist’s clinic. Traditional healthcare models cannot keep up with the demand for increasingly specialised treatment; and yet highly trained general clinicians are not empowered to work at their full potential. By connecting clinicians with different but complementary skill sets using technology, not only do more patients get access to the treatment they need, but clinicians feel less isolated and more fulfilled in their work. We see applications for this model in several healthcare specialities with a market size of over $500bn. We’re delighted to have the belief of Balderton and their experience and support will be integral as we scale 32Co.”

The successful seed funding round, led by Balderton and featuring participation from strategic angels such as Nicolas Cary, co-founder of Blockchain.com, will support 32Co’s vision of becoming the leading health tech platform to scale access to specialist treatments.

Magda Lukaszewicz, Principal at Balderton, said:

“We are proud to have partnered with 32co at the start of their journey. Having a number of health tech companies target patients directly – a lot fewer have managed to bring technology platforms to the hands of healthcare professionals, and collaboration between general practitioners and specialists is unlocking a completely new supply & demand – in an overwhelmed healthcare system”

Contact:
Aimee Soulsby / [email protected]

About 32Co

32Co is an innovative healthtech platform revolutionising dentistry with its personalised approach to building confidence in clinicians. We are changing the way clear aligner treatment is provided by dentists and orthodontists to increase access to high-quality outcomes for patients, all through the 32Co platform. https://www.32co.com/

About Balderton Capital

Balderton Capital is a leading venture firm focused on backing the best European-founded technology companies. In the two decades since its founding, Balderton has worked with hundreds of extraordinary founders and raised $4.5bn across ten funds to support businesses at both early and growth stage. Previous investments include Depop (Etsy), Digital Surgery (Medtronic), Frontier Car Group (OLX Group), Flywire (NASDAQ: FLYW), Nutmeg (JPMorgan Chase), Peakon (Workday), Recorded Future (Insight Partners), Sunrise (Microsoft), Talend (NASDAQ: TLND) and Yoox Net-a-Porter (BIT: YNAP). Balderton’s current portfolio includes: Aircall, Beauty Pie, Carwow, Citymapper, Contentful, ComplyAdvantage, Darktrace (LSE: DARK), Dream Games, GoCardless, Graphcore, Healx, Infarm, Labster, Lendable, Prodigy Finance, Revolut, Sophia Genetics (NASDAQ:SOPH), Tessian, Vestiaire Collective and Zego