French healthtech startup Ambler raises €6 million to accelerate digitalization of medical transport

18 months after its first fundraising, Ambler has completed a € 6 million round of financing with Bpifrance via the Digital Venture pole, Idinvest Partners, Partech and Kima Ventures to accelerate the development of its platform for connecting carriers sanitary and health establishments.

In France, the non-emergency medical transport market represents 80 million journeys per year and weighs 5 billion euros (more than the taxi and hybrid car sectors combined). Among the main use cases, we find the care of patients with renal insufficiency, oncology, rehabilitation or stays in psychiatric hospitals. Today, this offer is still too fragmented, with a myriad of independent carriers encountering difficulties in optimizing their services, and hospital staff who must manually manage each journey.

Founded in 2018, Ambler launched a service a year ago to manage transfers of patients between hospitals via an online platform, which have been subject to a reform referring spending from inter-hospital transfers to the establishments' budget. The start-up organizes the supply of medical transport professionals (ambulance companies, light medical vehicles and approved taxis) to respond optimally to demand from health establishments. Ambler thus makes it possible to simplify the heavy administrative work linked to the management of non-urgent patient transport, which weighs on the nursing staff (journey reservations, incident management, etc.), as well as the buyers and the financial teams of the establishments (calls offers, cost control, invoicing,

Nicolas Dumont, Product Director and co-founder of Ambler explains: ''The industry is significantly behind in terms of technology: the offer is often limited to order-taking software that is complex to use for healthcare establishments. We have created a simple and interoperable platform allowing clients to book a trip in seconds. Far from being just hospital software, Ambler is also the point of contact between the establishment and the transporters: a one-stop shop for medical transport present throughout the value chain to simplify, organize and impact the cost and quality of services.''

The Ambler solution has already convinced in just 18 months more than 200 public and private establishments and 500 carriers to cross the digitalization course.

In order to accelerate its development, Ambler announces that it has raised 6 million euros from Bpifrance, which is taking this opportunity, and from its historic shareholders Indinvest Partners, Partech and Kima Ventures. With this new fundraiser, Ambler wishes to continue its growth momentum and develop on the journeys between the patient's home and the healthcare establishment (dialysis, radiotherapy, day hospitalization, etc.), which represent 80% of total demand. . To do this, Ambler promotes a partnership model with medical transport companies based on cooperation between network members and on mutualisation of support. 

The start-up also intends to pursue its technological developments and strengthen its operational and commercial teams. Finally, Ambler aims to expand its presence in new French regions, with the aim of national coverage in 2021.

Mehdi Ben Abroug, co-founder & CEO of Ambler said: ''Carrying out this Series A will allow us, alongside trusted investors, to accelerate in the best conditions towards our vision for Ambler: to become the largest ambulance network of France by bringing together thousands of SME-VSEs in medical transport, thanks to an innovative partnership model and our technology, to raise the level of service to the highest standards in terms of mobility.''

Adrien Neel, Investment Director within the Digital Venture division of Bpifrance underlines: ''It is essential to simplify the lives of hospital staff, who are now overwhelmed by logistical and administrative tasks. This is why we are delighted to support Ambler in this new phase of growth, and proud to have been able to carry out this fundraising in the current context of a pandemic.''

www.ambler.fr