Posted By Gbaf News
Posted on June 15, 2018
Investors in tech for good startup include Downing Ventures, Forward Partners and DMGT
Award-winning London-based startup Live Better With, the world’s first curated e-commerce and community platform dedicated to making day-to-day life better for people living with long-term conditions, has closed a $7m Series A funding round.
The round was led by Downing Ventures along with Forward Partners, dmg ventures (Daily Mail and General Trust’s ventures division), and a number of angel investors. It follows seed investment of $4m to-date.
The $7m capital injection will enable the company to accelerate their mission of building a one-stop online shop featuring helpful products, useful content and like-minded communities, to bring people (initially cancer patients)relief from side effects and symptoms.
Their online platform offers a handpicked collection of over 2000 non-medical products for cancer patients, all of which help with the wide-ranging symptoms and side effects of cancer treatment such as hair loss, nausea and skin changes. Each of the products offered on the site is selected based on recommendations from patients, families, healthcare professionals, carers, charities and experts. This is complemented by over 300 practical guides and articles, and a 70,000+ strong community.
In 2017, Live Better With opened the UK’s first store specifically for cancer patients in Guy’s Hospital in London, and launched the world’s first digital global cancer support map.
This year, the company started to broaden its offering to other long-term conditions, with the same model. It recently launched Live Better With Menopause, which similarly has a curated range of products that aim to combat the symptoms and side effects of the menopause, from hot flushes and night sweats to difficulty sleeping, with a mission to help as many women as possible.
Tamara Rajah, Founder and CEO of Live Better With, comments:“We could not be more pleased to have successfully closed this $7m round, which will simply go straight into helping us expand our offering to our communities, and to reach more people who can benefit from what we offer. We are hugely excited about being able to accelerate the next steps in our heartfelt mission to make day-to-day a little bit better for every person living with a long-term condition around the world.”
James Lewis, Investment Director at Downing Ventures, comments: ““We’re really excited by the incredible work Tamara, Graham, Lydia and the whole team at Live Better With are doing to support millions of people globally living with long-term health conditions. The business has gone from strength to strength in the last few years and we are delighted to be part of the journey by leading this round.”
Manuel Lopo de Carvalho, CEO, dmg ventures said: “We are very excited to be getting involved with Live Better With and looking forward to seeing the business expand its offer and help an ever greater number of people dealing with a range of long term health conditions. We also know that the readers of our news titles care deeply about health and wellbeing and see some great opportunities for partnership with Tamara and the team.”
Nic Brisbourne, Founding Partner at Forward Partners, comments “It’s been an honour and a privilege watching and helping as Tamara, Lydia and Graham has built Live Better With from the first customer to the tens of thousands they have today. Everyone at Forward Partners has loved playing a small part in this great mission and we’re all thrilled that the company has raised this round to grow to the next level.”
About Live Better With
Live Better With is the destination for people around the world who are living with long-term conditions to discover everyday practical support for their symptoms and side effects. Live Better With works hand-in-hand with patient and healthcare communities to (a) create and curate relevant, recommended information and products, and (b) encourage sharing and connections between those going through the same experience
Live Better With began with cancer in 2015 in the UK and US, and now serves tens of thousands of cancer patients globally – with 1500+ handpicked products, 300+ proprietary guides, and a community of 70,000+. The company also has created their first own label product range, established the UK’s first retail store for those living with cancer (located inside Guy’s Hospital in London) and launched the world’s first digital cancer support services map.
Most recently in 2018, the company launched Live Better With Menopause, to serve the millions of women worldwide who are suffering (often silently) with the debilitating side effects of the menopause.
The company has a team of 13 at its offices in London.
Live Better With ranked 19thin the 2018 UK’s top 100 startups (startups.co.uk), was listed in the 2017 Disrupt 100, and is a MassChallenge UK Gold Winner.
Investors in this round
Downing Ventures, dmgventures, Forward Partners, and angel investors.
About the Founder
Tamara Rajah Dueing, 35, is the Founder &CEO of Live Better With, a healthcare platform that helps make day-to-day life better for patients with long-term conditions.
She is also currently a Founding Board Director of the UK’s Scale-Up Institute, a Board Director of London & Partners and Chair of Dot London and L&P Ventures.
Tamara was previously the youngest globalPartner at McKinsey & Company at the time, where she spent a decade in the global healthcare practice, plus led McKinsey’s knowledge and client work on entrepreneurship and tech clusters.
She has published widely on high growth entrepreneurship and healthcare ecosystems, and presented at several global forums including TedXNHS, MIT, the G8 Innovation Conference and the World Bank.
Tamara has founded three previous entrepreneurial ventures, was previously one of the UK’s 35 Women Under 35 by Management Today and was listed in the 2017 Wharton 40 under 40 list.
