Babylon Health

History

2023: Bankruptcy

The popular London startup Babylon Health went bankrupt. This was reported on August 31 by TechRound.

Babylon was founded in 2013 and has worked with private and corporate clients to help them see a doctor online. Startup and his GP at Hand application quickly gained a user base: at first this was facilitated by British medical practice, when patients had to wait long enough for a doctor's appointment; significant influence on the growth of the company's popularity had. COVID-19

GP at Hand Application Screen

Babylon was sponsored by insurance companies and had the support of large organizations such as DeepMind. A partnership with the National Health Service can be called especially influential - thanks to such a collaboration, the service received 700 thousand customers in the UK.

In October 2021, Babylon entered the New York Stock Exchange. Then the cost of the company was estimated at $4.2 billion.

At the same time, the company during its work constantly faced problems. So, many doctors and clients accused the bot working in the GP at Hand app and on the site of low quality recommendations. In 2020, a scandal was linked to Babylon when one user discovered he could watch dozens of videos of other patients' consultations.

The company lost several major contracts in the UK in 2022. This led to a large drop in the value of shares and the subsequent delisting from the exchange. The market value of all American shares of Babylon today is just over $5 thousand

Babylon tried to find a buyer, and even went to the Swiss startup in the field of medical technologies MindMaze. However, the negotiations ended in nothing and on August 7, 2023 recognized the breakdown of the deal. In the United States, Babylon was considered an insolvent company, so the firm decided to concentrate on the British market. However, there, too, the company's position was precarious. On August 30, it became known that the administrators appointed to the British division of Babylon Health agreed to sell a significant part of Babylon's assets to eMed Healthcare UK. The GP at Hand app was dropped from the deal and even continued to operate.^[1]

2018: Investing $100 million in the fight against chronic diseases

On September 13, 2018, Babylon Health announced an investment of about $100 million in the fight against chronic diseases such as diabetes and depression. The developer of medical systems using, artificial intelligence whose main office is located in, London plans to attract about 500 engineers, programmers and scientists to work on new applications, thereby doubling the number of employees.

In June 2018, Babylon Health introduced an AI platform that, according to the developers, is capable of making diagnoses no worse than family doctors. Now, as the company's founder and CEO, Ali Parsa, explained, Babylon Health is ready to embark on the next stage - combining various applications that help patients monitor their condition and using this information to optimally monitor treatment.

The developer of an AI system that diagnoses no worse than doctors invests $100 million in the fight against chronic diseases

Babylon Health develops technologies capable of evaluating different measures in the context of the patient's overall condition, including taking into account concomitant chronic diseases. The new AI platform, which is being developed by Babylon Health, will interact with the patient through a smartphone app, assess their condition and then create a personalized treatment plan. The efficacy of the therapy will be evaluated with several devices associated with the main platform.

Parsa noted that Babylon Health has already signed joint research and development contracts with the likes of Tencent, Samsung, Bupa, Prudential and The Gates Foundation. In addition, the company selected TELUS Health, an electronic health service provider, for distribution in the Canadian market.

Babylon Health representatives expressed hope to expand the staff as soon as possible and attract all the necessary personnel by approximately June 2019.^[2]

Notes