- Funding deployed to scale Little Journey’s global operations and fund product enhancements
- Investment round led by Par Equity, with additional investment from Mercia Ventures, Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund, Octopus Ventures, Calm/Storm Ventures and angel investors
18 November 2024: Little Journey, the innovative healthtech company transforming the delivery of paediatric care through personalised psychological support, today announced £6 million in Series A funding. The round, which will be used to accelerate Little Journey’s mission to revolutionise paediatric healthcare globally, was led by Edinburgh and Leeds-based venture capital firm Par Equity. Additional investment was made by Mercia Ventures,the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund I (NPIF I), Octopus Ventures, Calm/Storm Ventures, and angel investors with expertise in healthcare and life sciences.
The funding will be used to scale Little Journey’s operations globally with a focus on the US healthcare market. With early adopters already in place, Little Journey aims to continue expansion into this key market to extend its transformative support to more children and families worldwide.
The investment will also fund product enhancements, including the development of its scalable content plus interoperability and data collection capabilities. These advancements will enable healthcare and life science organisations to adopt more data-focused, patient-centric approaches to care and decision making, ultimately improving outcomes for paediatric patients globally.
The funding will also support the maturation of Little Journey’s systems, ensuring the company’s infrastructure and product security are robust and scalable for global adoption.
Chris Evans, Co-Founder & CEO of Little Journey, commented: “Securing this investment allows us to scale our impact across healthcare and life sciences, with a focus on easing the burden of paediatric clinical trials. While legislation like RACE, SPCs, and the ODA has increased study numbers, specialist paediatric knowledge is still lacking in the industry. This has led to lower recruitment, adherence and trial completion rates compared to adult research. Little Journey is uniquely positioned to fill this expertise gap and tackle these challenges to advance global paediatric medicine. With the backing of Par Equity, Mercia Ventures, Octopus Ventures, and our wider investor network, we’re redefining how paediatric clinical trials are run and putting families at the heart of them.”
Sophie Copley, Co-Founder & CPO of Little Journey, said: “We’re ready to take our product capabilities to the next level. Little Journey already tailors support based on age, language, procedure, and trial protocol. With this Series A funding, we will enhance our data capabilities and further globalise our offering, enabling a data-driven, personalised model of care in paediatrics. This will drive impact for our growing international customer base in a patient-centric way. By empowering families with the right knowledge and resources at the right time, we believe we can help build a brighter, healthier future for all children across the globe.“
Little Journey’s own journey began in 2018, co-founded by Dr Chris Evans and Sophie Copley. As an anaesthetic doctor and father, Chris witnessed first-hand the distress faced by children and their families during hospital visits. Coupled with the fact that over a quarter of the world’s population is under 18 years old, yet paediatric care remains chronically under-researched and under-funded, Chris and Sophie joined forces, complemented by Sophie’s expertise in human-centred product design. The pair created the app to support children undergoing elective surgery, striving to provide the best possible support throughout healthcare interactions.
Little Journey has since evolved to assist thousands of young patients across the globe, is used in over 100 hospitals across 11 countries and has localised content in 20 languages. It holds a content repository to support children and families through 12 procedures including MRI, mental health and neurodevelopment assessment and blood tests, with more coming soon. Alongside healthcare, Little Journey also has partnerships with top global pharmaceutical companies, improving the paediatric clinical trial experience. By reducing barriers to trial participation, the platform empowers families and helps life science organisations accelerate the development and approval of medicines for children.
Par Equity has been instrumental in honing the trajectory of Little Journey’s growth plans. Leveraging its deep expertise in scaling high-growth companies, Par Equity played a key role in shaping a fundraise strategy tailored to Little Journey’s unique needs. Par Equity’s strategic guidance has been crucial in positioning the company for successful expansion into the US market, focusing on cost efficiency and traction.
Elizabeth Young, Investment Manager at Par Equity said: “Healthtech is at the heart of what we do at Par Equity. We are committed to supporting high-growth, impactful health tech companies that have the potential to revolutionise the way that care is delivered. At present, there exists a pressing need for bespoke technologies tailored to children and Little Journey’s innovative approach to paediatric care does just that. We look forward to seeing what’s in store for the future of children’s healthcare and are excited to support Little Journey’s expansion into the US and beyond.”
Alongside the investment round, the company has also secured significant grant funding, with £2.09 million from the LEGO Foundation’s Play for All Accelerator and £493,000 from SBRI Healthcare. These funds will support Little Journey’s ongoing projects, including enhancing app accessibility for children with disabilities and partnering with the LEGO Foundation to co-create solutions with neurodivergent children.
About Little Journey
Little Journey is a health tech company changing the future of personalised paediatric care, one empowered family at a time. The platform provides tailored preparation and psychological support to guide children and their families through medical journeys. Developed with clinicians, clinical psychologists, health play specialists, and the ‘Little Leaders’ young people’s advisory group, Little Journey combines evidence-based practices with data-driven insights to give caregivers and healthcare professionals the knowledge and tools they need to ensure every child receives the best care possible.
Used by over 20,000 families across 100+ sites in 11 countries and 20 languages, Little Journey supports everything from routine one-off procedures to long-term clinical trials with regular hospital visits. With a 25% adoption rate within the NHS and partnerships with leading global pharmaceutical companies and CROs, the platform boasts a 97% family satisfaction rate. Independent studies have shown that Little Journey reduces anxiety, increases compliance, and enhances understanding and engagement for young patients and their caregivers.
Committed to setting a new standard for compassionate, child-centred care, Little Journey has partnered with The LEGO Foundation and SBRI Healthcare to improve accessibility for all children, especially neurodivergent children and those with disabilities. To learn more, please visit https://www.littlejourney.health/ or contact [email protected]
About Par Equity
Par Equity is a leading venture capital firm based in Edinburgh and Leeds, which invests in innovative technology companies with high growth potential, across the North of the UK. Since it was founded in 2008, Par Equity has invested over £192m across 79 companies, catalysing a further £327m of capital from third-party investors. Par Equity has backed and exited high profile names such as Current Health and DeltDNA, which have helped build an impressive track record across 31 realisations to date.
A certified B-Corp, Par Equity partners with early-stage companies, operating B2B business models and with strong IP. Many of these companies are innovating in the fields of health tech, climate tech and industrial tech, often driven by new technologies such as robotics, photonics, advanced materials and artificial intelligence. Supporting Par’s successful investment strategy across the north of the UK includes 15 investment professionals, 10 support staff, 40 operating partners and 240 investor network members across the community.
Par Equity recently launched Par Equity Ventures I LP, a £100m Fund to support companies in the North of the UK to scale faster at Series A rounds and beyond, accelerating innovation and job creation in the region.
About Mercia Ventures
Mercia Ventures is a proactive venture capital investor focused on being the first-choice partner for growth. Mercia Ventures makes equity investments of up to £10million across all sectors, with specialisms in Software, Consumer, Healthcare and Deep Tech.
Mercia Ventures is part of Mercia Asset Management PLC and sits alongside its wider private equity, debt and proprietary balance sheet capital operations. The Group has 11 offices in the UK and Mercia Ventures’ national footprint and 48 strong investment team draws on their experiences as founders, PhD scientists, software engineers, corporate financiers and management consultants to help its partner companies successfully achieve their ambitions.
About Octopus Ventures
Octopus Ventures, part of Octopus Group, is one of the largest and most active venture capital investors in the UK and Europe. We’re on a mission to invest in the people, ideas and industries that will change the world.
We back entrepreneurs ─ from the first cheque their business receives, right through to IPO. We manage £1.8bn and are investing in more than 200 businesses, focusing on the companies solving three of the world’s biggest problems: those building a sustainable planet, empowering people, and revitalising healthcare.
We know what it takes to build a successful business. We support founders through our strong teams, sector expertise and deep networks, using our people and talent to help them build a better tomorrow.
