What happened: The German startup Nelly has announced a new funding round led by Cathay Innovation and Notion Capital (PYMNTS). Nelly operates at the intersection of fintech and healthcare. They describe their offering as a “Patient Experience Platform” and Financial Operating System (FinOS) that enables medical practices to streamline workflows and provides patients with a fully digital experience.
My comment: I spoke with Nelly’s cofounder Niklas Radner in our podcast episode, last year. Technically, Nelly is not a non-financial brand and is more of a fintech company. This means Nelly is not a pure embedded finance player; however, it is fascinating how they have leveraged non-financial features to build their vertical fintech company (listen to the podcast!).
In recent years, I have looked at a few players who wanted to enter the fintech-healthcare intersection. Due to its size and outdated technology, this market is highly attractive, but figuring out an actual value-add for medical practices and a strong GTM strategy is crucial. A €50 million round indicates that Nelly is on the right track, and I wonder how this market will continue to change over the following years.
