Doctify, a transparent healthcare platform, allows patients to search, compare reviews and prices, and book appointments with medical specialists across the UK in a matter of seconds. The start-up was co-founded in 2015 by two NHS trauma surgeons, Dr Stephanie Eltz and Dr Suman Saha. The pair met while operating together at UCH in London and quickly found that they shared an entrepreneurial passion for innovation to pull healthcare into the patient-centric modern age.

Doctify is geared towards healthcare specialists and the thousands of patients who use the platform every month for greater access and transparent pricing when seeking healthcare. The start-up aims to counter the notoriously long NHS wait times and exorbitantly high cost of private healthcare through the disruptive force of its comparison platform, much like Airbnb and many fintech firms have done since for their sectors.

Doctify is free for patients, while clinicians pay a monthly fee to list on the platform. The system helps specialists shuffle around appointments that have been cancelled at short notice for more efficient scheduling. Ultimately, the founders aim to develop the SaaS platform so that every healthcare provider and patient have access to it through a suite of interconnected mobile and web-based products.

Since its launch, Doctify has secured a seven-figure series A investment from Amadeus Capital to catalyse its roll-out. Doctify was recently awarded a prize by HRH The Duke of York in a competition run to identify companies that would likely drive future innovation in the health-tech sector.

The number of doctorpreneurs have been growing in the last few years in the UK, partly disillusioned by the negative sentiment surrounding the NHS, and partly driven by their own innately entrepreneurial streak to find innovative solutions in healthcare. While health-tech in general has seen a lot of investment over the past few years, doctor-founded businesses is seeing a pick-up in interest from the VC community. Despite the growing success of the sector, only two doctor-founded companies: Touch Surgery and Doctify have been able to secure large-scale funding.