Telehealth 2.0: Aussie startup Eucalyptus raises $60 million

Aussie digital health startup Eucalyptus has raised $60 million as it sets its sights on overseas expansion and the dawn of ‘telehealth 2.0’.

The latest round is led by big-name Silicon Valley VC Bond Capital, and also included repeat backing from Blackbird, AirTree, OneVentures, New View Capital, Athletic Ventures and Woolworths’ W23 Ventures.

Founded in 2019, Eucalyptus builds digital health brands designed to make healthcare more accessible. It now has five demographic-focused brands.

Pilot is a service focused specifically on men’s health, while Kin offers online fertility support for women, as well as a subscription service for the contraceptive pill.

Normal is focused on sexual wellbeing, and Software offers prescription skincare. The newest offering, Juniper, focuses on personalised treatments for peri- and post-menopausal symptoms.

The raise follows a $30 million cash injection just six months ago in July 2021.

Since then, Eucalyptus has seen revenue growth of about 100%, co-founder Tim Doyle tells SmartCompany.

The team has also started to focus more on its behavioural change and health management platforms.

But between the health coaching, medications and tech development, this is a pretty capital-intensive business, Doyle adds.

“There was an opportunity to secure another round of funding which allowed us to continue to build that depth.”

Eucalyptus’ overseas ambitions

The funding will be used to continue to build out Eucalyptus’ presence in its five healthcare sectors, with a particular focus on obesity management, Doyle explains.

The founders are also gearing up to enter the UK, planning a huge media launch in the market.

For Doyle, securing funding from such a huge international VC comes as a certain validation that Eucalyptus could be a global brand — something he sees happening within the next five years or so.

“It’s just a statement about ambition,” he says.

“They saw that this could be a global healthcare player … to have that shared ambition and to have that validated by a top, top global investor is really exciting.”

Telehealth 2.0

Much of Eucalyptus’ monumental growth has come since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the near-universal shift to telehealth.

In a constantly shifting pandemic landscape, we’re now moving from the ‘first generation’ of telehealth to the second, Doyle suggests.

It’s not about GPs conducting appointments over Zoom anymore, he says. It’s about the evolution of a “digital-first healthcare system” — that is, text-based consults, e-prescriptions and remote behavioural care.

Even in a post-COVID world (if indeed we ever get there), he doesn’t see healthcare going back entirely to pre-pandemic models.

The role of telehealth won’t be video calls to the clinic.

“The question will be: how do we augment what we’ve already built to deliver alongside clinicians in the clinic, and how do we really improve their ability to manage patients in the home?”