Global ambitions for HealthMatch

Our Series A investment into HealthMatch

Eighteen months ago, we invested in a founder who had the vision to provide better access to life-changing clinical trials for patients globally.

Over this time, HealthMatch has emerged from a founder vision and a product in testing to a company that counts thousands of patients globally and exclusive partnerships with international pharmaceutical giants. We couldn’t be more proud of the progress Manuri Gunawardena and the HealthMatch team has made.

Which is why we’re excited to continue backing Manuri, and announce our latest investment into HealthMatch and its $6M capital raise, with Square Peg investing alongside us for the long term.

Rewind 18 Months

Founder and CEO Manuri Gunawardena had the vision for HealthMatch while working as a medical student in a neuro-oncology lab assisting patients who were seeking trials for treatments.

There are millions of people desperate to trial new treatments but the complexities and inefficiencies in the process mean they often miss out. And as Manuri told us about the disconnect between available clinical trials and patients wanting access, we saw her vision of accelerating patient recruitment and enabling life-changing treatments through a platform that applied artificial intelligence to clinical data and patient onboarding.

We saw a company that could make a generational impact on the global healthcare industry, by dramatically reducing the inefficiencies experienced in the establishment of drug trials and the recruitment of patients. We believed HealthMatch had the ability to save lives, and we were fortunate to have invested in the company’s seed round alongside industry specialists.

Since our seed investment, HealthMatch has already made an impact. With a team of 6 people, HealthMatch launched its product in January 2019, and has grown to over 7,000 qualified patient profiles and matched patients to over 2,000 clinical trials in Australia, Asia, and the US.

The company has delivered on its early promise and entered into exclusive partnerships with Hoffman-La Roche (Roche) and other major pharma companies across Asia — reinforcing Manuri’s vision for a change in the industry.

Our follow on investment

Tempus is excited to co-lead HealthMatch’s Series A, with Square Peg investing alongside us in this round. This follow-on capital will enable HealthMatch to accelerate its global growth and fully commercialise its product via partnerships with the world’s most important pharmaceutical companies.

No other Australian startup is making a larger impact on the global healthcare industry than Manuri and her team at HealthMatch.

They have the potential to completely reshape drug discovery and clinical trials, an industry that acts as a bottleneck for over $200B of pharmaceutical R&D.

Having already secured a foothold in the Asia-Pacific market, the company is turning its ambition to the US, a market that suffers the most from drug trial inefficiency and complexity.

In 2018 we said, “We believe the company has an opportunity to deliver a material change to healthcare globally, and more importantly to save lives.”

Our belief in the company continues. Which is why we’re proud to invest in HealthMatch and Manuri’s vision to provide patients from all over the world with access to life-changing trials.