SmartCompany: Last year’s Smart50 winner InstantScripts sees 10% increase in valuation following $5 million invesment
Healthtech startup InstantScripts has received another $5 million investment from ASX-listed venture fund Bailador Technology Investments.
The recent investment — following Bailador’s pre-existing $16.6 million in InstantScripts — has seen a 10%, or $1.7 million, uplift in the company’s valuation.
Speaking with SmartCompany, InstantScripts chief operating officer Richard Skimin said the recent investment was a purchase of secondary shares, and that InstantScripts is “pleased that the shares traded [added] a 10% uplift to valuation”.
Last year, the digital healthcare platform took home the top accolade at SmartCompany’s annual Smart50 awards.
At the time, InstantScripts had recorded $7.5 million in revenue in the 2020-21 financial year — up 1441% from 2018-19.
The company was founded by Asher Freilich and Maxim Shklyar in 2017, who decided to go into a partnership that could combine Freilich’s corporate and clinical background with Shklyar’s experience in technology.
Together, the co-founders were able to develop a solution that modernises the way doctors provide prescriptions to patients using an online platform.
But during the COVID-19 crisis, demand for telehealth skyrocketed, boosting InstantScripts presence in the market.
“Telehealth went from being a fringe service that was viewed with suspicion by the medical community to one that was rapidly embraced, and for a short period funded by Medicare,” Freilich told SmartCompany last year.
In June of 2021, investment management firm Perennial helped InstantScripts secure $10.9 million in funding to drive the online prescription services’ continued growth.
“What’s enabled the business to scale and what’s made it work really well is this dream partnership with a clinician and a tech wizard,” Freilich said.
Speaking to SmartCompany at the time when COVID-19 restrictions were easing off across New South Wales and Victoria, Freilich wasn’t fazed by a looming drop in the popularity of telehealth services.
In fact, he said he didn’t even notice a decline. Rather, InstantScripts saw demand for telehealth “increase at a rate of knots”.
Bailador’s further investment in the business proves this trend, as well as InstantScripts growth from 350,000 users in January to 500,000 users registered on the platform to date.
As for the future, Skimin says InstantScripts will “continue to reinvest our earnings to support our mission of helping more Australians get convenient access to primary health care”.