Little Journey, a London-headquartered healthtech startup that transforms the delivery of paediatric care through personalised psychological support, has secured £6 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Edinburgh and Leeds-based venture capital firm Par Equity. Additional investment was made by Mercia Ventures (which recently invested in Semble and Scalpel AI), the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund I (NPIF I), Octopus Ventures (which recently invested in Cambri and DRIFT Energy), Calm/Storm Ventures, and angel investors with expertise in healthcare and life sciences.
Alongside the investment round, the company has also secured significant grant funding, with £2.09 million from the LEGO Foundation’s Play for All Accelerator and £493K from SBRI Healthcare.
Taps into the US healthcare market
The investment will be used to accelerate Little Journey’s mission to revolutionise paediatric healthcare globally. With this investment, the company will scale its operations globally with a focus on the US healthcare market. With early adopters already in place, the company aims to continue expansion into this key market to extend its transformative support to more children and families worldwide.
Plans to disrupt paediatric clinical trials
The investment will also fund product enhancements, including the development of its scalable content, interoperability, and data collection capabilities. These advancements will enable healthcare and life science organisations to adopt more data-focused, patient-centric approaches to care and decision-making, ultimately improving outcomes for paediatric patients globally. The funding will also support the maturation of Little Journey’s systems, ensuring the company’s infrastructure and product security are robust and scalable for global adoption. The company also plans to expand its impact on paediatric clinical trials, addressing key challenges in recruitment, adherence, and trial completion.
In addition, the grant funding will support Little Journey’s ongoing projects to enhance app accessibility for children with disabilities.
What led to this idea?
Little Journey was founded in 2018 by Dr. Chris Evans and Sophie Copley. As an anaesthetician and father, Chris witnessed the distress faced by children and their families during hospital visits. Coupled with the fact that over a quarter of the world’s population is under 18 years old, yet paediatric care remains chronically under-researched and underfunded, Chris and Sophie joined forces, complemented by Sophie’s expertise in human-centered product design.
The pair created the app to support children undergoing elective surgery, striving to provide the best possible support throughout healthcare interactions. Since then, the company has assisted thousands of young patients across the globe, is used in over 100 hospitals across 11 countries, and has localised content in 20 languages.
Reshapes future of personalised paediatric care
The Little Journey platform provides tailored preparation and psychological support to guide children and their families through medical journeys. Developed with clinicians, clinical psychologists, health play specialists, and the ‘Little Leaders’ young people’s advisory group, it combines evidence-based practices with data-driven insights to give caregivers and healthcare professionals the knowledge and tools they need to ensure every child receives the best care possible.
With a 25% adoption rate within the NHS and partnerships with leading global pharmaceutical companies and CROs, the platform boasts a 97% family satisfaction rate. As per the company, it has been proven to reduce anxiety, increase compliance, and enhance understanding and engagement for young patients and their caregivers.
It holds a content repository to support children and families through 12 procedures, including MRI, mental health and neurodevelopment assessment, and blood tests, with more coming soon.
Key partnerships
Alongside healthcare, Little Journey also has partnerships with top global pharmaceutical companies, improving the paediatric clinical trial experience. By reducing barriers to trial participation, the platform empowers families and helps life science organisations accelerate the development and approval of medicines for children. It also partners with the LEGO Foundation to co-create solutions with neurodivergent children.
Elizabeth Young, Investment Manager at Par Equity said: “Healthtech is at the heart of what we do at Par Equity. We are committed to supporting high-growth, impactful health tech companies that have the potential to revolutionise the way that care is delivered. At present, there exists a pressing need for bespoke technologies tailored to children and Little Journey’s innovative approach to paediatric care does just that. We look forward to seeing what’s in store for the future of children’s healthcare and are excited to support Little Journey’s expansion into the US and beyond.”
Sophie Copley, Co-Founder & CPO of Little Journey, said: “We’re ready to take our product capabilities to the next level. Little Journey already tailors support based on age, language, procedure, and trial protocol. With this Series A funding, we will enhance our data capabilities and further globalise our offering, enabling a data-driven, personalised model of care in paediatrics. This will drive impact for our growing international customer base in a patient-centric way. By empowering families with the right knowledge and resources at the right time, we believe we can help build a brighter, healthier future for all children across the globe.”
The post London-based Little Journey secures £6M to reshape future of personalised paediatric care appeared first on Tech Funding News.