Recare raises EUR €37m to expand hospital AI agent

Recare has raised up to €37 million in a growth funding round led by DNV, as the Berlin health technology company prepares to roll out a new AI agent in hospitals and care facilities and expand internationally.

DNV, an assurance and risk management provider, participated alongside CIBC Innovation Banking and other investors. The transaction makes DNV the largest shareholder in Recare.

The round totals €37 million and includes a €7 million option. Recare said it will use the funds to introduce the AI agent across hospitals and care facilities and to expand its business outside Germany.

Founded in 2017, Recare sells a software-as-a-service platform used for discharge management and aftercare coordination. The company said its network includes around two-thirds of German hospitals and more than 26,000 care providers. It also cited links to more than 650 rehabilitation clinics, nursing providers and homecare organisations.

Workflow focus

Recare's product focuses on administrative processes around patient discharge and aftercare. The company said the new AI agent automates parts of documentation and process control. It also coordinates workflows across clinical and administrative teams.

Recare described the AI agent as a software layer that connects existing hospital IT systems. It said the system coordinates workflows across departments and automates routine tasks such as medical letters and handover protocols. It also extracts and structures data from PDFs, scans and free text.

The company framed the product in the context of staffing shortages in European healthcare. It cited European Commission estimates of a shortfall of about one million doctors and nurses in Europe, with the gap expected to widen by 2030.

Maximilian Greschke, Chief Executive Officer, Recare, said administrative work has increased pressure on hospitals and reduced time available for patient care.

"Hospitals are under enormous operational pressure, as healthcare professionals spend increasing time on administrative tasks-leaving less capacity for what matters most: caring for patients. Recare's AI agent platform relieves a large part of this administrative burden by leveraging unstructured data to rapidly orchestrate workflows. The new investment into our business will accelerate the roll-out of our AI agent across Germany and abroad, helping healthcare providers to transform their workforce capacity," said Maximilian Greschke, CEO of Recare.

Strategic investor

DNV said the investment increases its exposure to the German healthcare market. The group has operated in healthcare for decades through accreditation and certification services. It also owns a portfolio of digital health businesses.

Those holdings include DNV Imatis, which DNV described as a provider of real-time data integration tools. It also includes MBI Health, which it described as focused on healthcare productivity and data assurance, and Patients Know Best, which it described as focused on patient-controlled health records.

Daniel Holth Larsen, Managing Director, Digital Health, DNV, linked the investment to DNV's focus on data quality and interoperability in healthcare systems.

"Recare is proving that smarter workflows translate into measurable productivity for German healthcare. DNV's investment will scale that impact internationally. Recare's market leadership and ambitious AI plans fit perfectly with DNV's focus on solutions that raise efficiency and reliability through secure, accurate, interoperable data," said Daniel Holth Larsen, Managing Director, Digital Health, DNV.

Bank participation

CIBC Innovation Banking also joined the round. The lender focuses on growth-stage technology and life sciences companies and offers venture loans and related banking services.

Charlotte Goggin, Director, CIBC Innovation Banking, pointed to time pressures linked to administrative work in healthcare settings.

"We are pleased to support Recare as part of its latest funding round. For healthcare institutions, administrative tasks are time-consuming and take away from valuable hours that could be spent helping patients. Recare addresses this with its platform that maximises optionality for patients requiring aftercare solutions and streamlines the discharge and after-care processes," said Goggin.

Recare said it plans to expand its AI technology into international markets as it rolls out the new AI agent across Germany and outside the country.