Covid testing pushes LetsGetChecked to €1bn valuation

Irish-founded virtual care company LetsGetChecked has closed a $150 million (€123 million) series D funding announcement, bringing its total valuation to more than $1 billion.

That valuation sees the company join the ranks of Irish tech unicorns, and brings the total amount raised by the company to more than $260 million.

The funding round was led by Boston-based Casdin Capital, with further participation from CommonFund Capital, Illumina Ventures, Optum Ventures, Transformation Capital, HLM Venture Partners, and Qiming Venture Partners USA, and professional golfer Rory Mcllroy.

“We were able to demonstrate last year the ability of the platform to scale and get critical services to customers and patients in the home,” founder and chief executive Peter Foley said. “We had lots to point to in the investor community.”

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“Generally speaking in the industry, there is massive change in healthcare. It is becoming digital first; for a long time it wasn’t. That’s driven by the conditions we’ve all had to live in over the past 18 months.

“ There’s definitely a massive shift happening in the industry, and we are at the forefront of it,” Mr Foley added. “It’s an amazing opportunity to deliver on what we built the company for, but also it is attracting a lot of interest from the wider investor community.”

He described the investment from Casdin Capital as a “good signal” to the market.

“They’re a real crossover type fund. We’re extremely fortunate to have got their investment,” he said.

Founder Eli Casdin will join the board of LetsGetChecked.

The company said it planned to use the money to invest in and expand its services, including investment in its telehealth services, expand its pharmaceutical services in the US and other markets, and strengthen its commitment to delivering at-home diagnostic test kits directly to customers.

“Those three pillars allow us to develop care pathways which we have established, such as managing someone’s cardiac care profile over time, or hyperlipidemia for cholesterol, hyperthyrododism for a particular cohort,” said Mr Foley. “It’s about managing people’s care to derive better outcomes for patients over time.”

Recruitment

LetsGetChecked, founded by Mr Foley in 2015, has seen its business grow significantly during the pandemic, with year-on-year growth hitting 1,500 per cent.

In addition to supplying its at-home diagnostics tests to customers, last year saw the health insights business scale up its Covid-19 testing through the past year and build its first European-owned and -operated lab in Dublin.

In December, LetsGetChecked said it would create 160 jobs in Dublin, bringing its total workforce to 650.

Mr Foley said recruitment was ongoing. “The hiring process is going great,” he said. “Our engineering team and designers are all based out of Ireland.”

He said the company would continue to focus on Europe and the US in the near term. He didn’t rule out further fundraising later in the year, or a potential stock market flotation in the future.

The company, which has offices in Dublin and New York, has offered its private at-home screening model to more than 1 million customers in 2020 alone. Pricing for its tests, which usually require only a simple prick of the finger, start at about €50.

The company began with sexual health tests, but its current list of tests includes men and women’s health and diagnostics for vitamin levels, thyroid function and cortisol levels. It has continued to offer its standard diagnostic tests to clients during the coronavirus outbreak.