Human books $10.15 million for new approach to chronic illness care, secures largest-ever funding round for Australian female founding team

Australian health tech startup Human has successfully closed a $10.15 million seed funding round, pledging to use the investment to change the way patients, doctors, and researchers navigate chronic health conditions.

Founded by former Canva employees Georgia Vidler and Kate Lambridis, who respectively served as head of product and senior product manager at the graphic design giant, Human bills itself as a technology-forward solution to the mass of unclear, unhelpful, and obscure information surrounding chronic health conditions.

“Both patients and doctors are constantly looking for new options,” Vidler said in a statement.

“But the sheer volume of medical information out there makes it almost impossible for people to decipher what information is relevant, what is misinformation, which treatments work, and which are safe.”

In turn, Human promises to deliver “personalised healthcare” services. For the startup, this involves finding gaps in existing medical knowledge, recruiting doctors and patients for research, publishing their findings, and integrating that information with a “compelling scientific health tracking product”.

A pitch deck presented by Human suggests users will eventually have access to a smartphone app presenting research-backed treatments for their medical conditions, and will even contribute to research themselves.

Human also intends to share those insights with doctors through its app ecosystem.

The six-month-old venture has acquired 18 staff members to date, including medical personnel, with its beta product still in production.

But the pitch was strong enough to garner investment led by Airtree Ventures’ Elicia McDonald, with additional investment from Kim Jackson and Scott Farquhar’s Skip Capital.

“We feel privileged to support them in making their vision a reality,” McDonald said in a statement.

In completing the $10.15 million raise, Human also says it has locked in the largest-ever funding round for an all-Australian female founding team.

While investor sentiment appears to have fallen from the heady peaks of early 2022, Human joins a growing list of Australian startups to successfully complete funding rounds so far in July.