Rachel Lewis

Screenshots of my work on the HBI Intelligence platform

The heaviest hitters in Europe’s digital health market have valuations at an all-time high: Babylon is valued at $4.2bn, Kry at $2bn and Alan at €1.4bn. There remains, however, a huge disparity between the M&A and the fundraising markets, with most buyers of these start-ups opting for early-stage acquisitions. HBI gives an overview of the market.

The fragmented German radiotherapy market is starting to pique the interest of private equity, as many doctors reach retirement age. Pan-EU platform MedEuropa has acquired a three-centre group in the northwest, and CEO Ralph Hefti tells HBI that its model of co-investing alongside doctors is likely to win out consolidation efforts.

Global digital health platform Babylon Health will IPO through a $4.2bn merger with SPAC Alkuri Acquisition Corp. The deal gives it a 13x revenue multiple of the $4.2bn equity value and 11x a $3.6bn enterprise value. The move comes as Europe’s players increasingly look to the States as a more scalable market. Despite just launching there last year, 70% of Babylon’s revenues now come from the States.

Ergon Capital, the mid-market PE fund, is buying a German dental group with 20 practices in western Germany.

For all the talk of COVID-19 pushing ahead the digitalisation of healthcare, the use of video consultations in both actual numbers and as a percentage of consultations in primary care fell during the pandemic’s peak. Recent headlines talk about 48% of primary care being delivered digitally, but most of these were telephone calls.

Patient footfall for outpatient care across the world has all but stopped. Exclusive data from DocPlanner shows which specialities have seen the biggest drop in appointments booked and where telemedicine is really picking up some of the slack. We assess this against outpatient volumes in Singapore during SARS to see when it might pick up.

Black cab drivers across London have welcomed the decision from London’s transport regulator not to renew Uber’s license in the city.

"I found the whole thing hilarious, to be honest. I mean, it's a record that's fun and there to be broken," shrugs Ged Jenkins-Omar, laughing off the allegations of plagiarism that have been hurled at him since his shed, Club 28, was awarded the Guinness World Record for the world's smallest club in February. "The record was released into the press one day, the next day press outlets around the world had featured it, and then by the third day it had a bunch of haters." To be the world record