21st August, Belgrade, South Central Ventures is announcing its investment in Virtus Vita, a global dialysis & travel company with a vision to revolutionise the medical tourism sector with their state of the art medical booking platform.
As world population grows so is travelling across international borders with the intention of receiving some form of medical treatment. Therefore, in the past 10 years medical tourism has become one the most dynamic and rapidly developing sectors of tourism. Today, there are approximately 14 million annual cross-border patients worldwide, spending an average of USD 4,000-6,000 per visit. Every year the patients demand better, faster and easier solutions making the Меdical Tourism market grow at CAGR 23% with a current market of $100 Billion and projected to reach $3 trillion by 2025.
Shaping the Future of Medical Tourism
Driven by the continuously increasing demand from consumers seeking healthcare abroad, Virtus Vita is launching the first-ever online booking platform in medical tourism,”boooknowmed”. Harvesting the potential of digital technology, “BookNowMed” will provide real-time availability for booking treatments; connecting medical travellers with the world’s largest network of medical facilities. Real-time availability will drastically simplify the current booking process from a number of days to a matter of minutes.
Since inception the company rapidly developed a leadership position in the field of renal healthcare and holiday dialysis. Today, the company has one of the largest online networks, counting 400+ clinics in 380 destinations worldwide; empowering renal patients to explore the world by securing their treatments when traveling. Furthermore, through partnerships with 60 National & Local Kidney Patient Associations in 20 countries they have access to 1,2 million renal patients globally. The impact of Booknowmed in completely reshaping the booking process, not only for renal healthcare but for a variety of specialised treatments, is the reason why this initiative has been supported and validated by Medical Associations worldwide, including the American Association of Kidney Patients (AAKP)
The Team
Antonios-Aris Bailan (CEO) founded Virtus Vita in 2012. He was one of the first entrepreneurs to identify this niche market and reshape the booking process for renal patients. Since inception Virtus Vita team has been focusing on creating a worldwide network of clinics allowing patients to book their treatment online. For the upcoming investment Aris said:
“Our vision is to become the #1 online booking platform for medical tourism, making the booking process a stress-free experience.”
The investment in Virtus Vita will help the company launch their Booknowmed Platform and scale it worldwide. “We are excited to work with Virtus Vita on digitalising and scaling their booking platform. They obviously deliver enormous value to renal patients and are well-positioned to completely reshape this medical tourism niche”. Jan Kobler, Managing partner at SCV.
Thus Virtus Vita is the 10th company that SCV invested in the western Balkan.