Irwin Mitchell Advises Praetura Ventures On Funding

A fast-growing healthtech business which aims to provide a solution to the NHS staffing shortages has secured £3m in a funding round led by Praetura Ventures.

Patchwork, which has offices in London, Manchester and Liverpool, was founded by NHS doctors Anas Nader and Jing Ouyang in 2016 to help hospitals fill vacant shifts more cost-effectively and to reduce the number of clinicians leaving the health service due to poor work-life balance.

Praetura Ventures, a firm committed to providing capital and strategic support to early-stage businesses across the north of England, has invested £1.9m in Patchwork as part of the £3m deal. 

The Manchester office of Irwin Mitchell advised Praetura Ventures on the deal which included additional backing from the publisher behind the British Medical Journal together with some existing angel investors. 

Patchwork's market-leading technology focuses on transforming the power of NHS Trusts to recruit temporary staff rather than relying on recruitment agencies. Through tailored portals for NHS Trusts and a simple, hassle free app for clinicians, Patchwork is able to increase the number of clinicians booking shifts directly with their hospital. 

More than 10,000 clinicians across over 30 hospitals already use the Patchwork app, with over one million shift hours booked since launch. 

This funding will enable Patchwork to accelerate growth and foster partnerships with more NHS Trusts across England and Wales. 

With the support of the team at Praetura Ventures, Patchwork also plans to further invest in the development of its proprietary software to enable the roll out across different staff groups within the NHS and support future expansion into the GP and private medical sector.

This investment was led by Mark Lyons and Louise Chapman of Praetura Ventures. David Foreman, managing director of Praetura Ventures, will join the Patchwork board as a non-executive director.

Mark Lyons, director at Praetura Ventures, said: “The staffing issues facing the NHS are never far from the headlines and there is a significant amount of political and social pressure to reduce costs and maintain quality of patient care. There’s no doubt that this is not an easy task, but Anas and Jing have established a business that is proven to help.” 

Corporate partner Adam Kaucher and solicitor Gregory Mazgajczyk from Irwin Mitchell in Manchester advised on the deal.

Expert Opinion

We are delighted to have advised Praetura Ventures on this deal. It has been a pleasure to work with the Praetura team. Patchwork has been hugely successful since its launch and with this latest injection of capital from this successful funding round, I look forward to seeing the business grow and provide the much-needed help to tackle the issue of staffing shortages in the NHS.” Adam Kaucher - Partner