Paweł Sieczkiewicz, CEO of Telemedi

Black Pearls VC announces an exit from Telemedi, selling its stake to Mavie, marking the third successful exit this year.

14 December 2023

As a venture capital firm committed to helping startups grow and succeed, we’re thrilled to announce yet another meaningful exit from one of our portfolio companies: Telemedi. Mavie, an Austrian based healthcare provider acquired a majority stake in Telemedi, which resulted in a full exit for Black Pearls VC. As part of this long-term partnership Mavie will provide future strategic support to Telemedi.

Telemedi is a telehealth provider and one of the biggest telemedical platforms in Central and Eastern Europe. Our journey with the company began when we led the pre-seed round, becoming the first VC investor to join Telemedi. Since then we had the privilege of supporting Paweł and the team through their entire growth story: all the way from pre-seed, through the €5.5M Series A in which we actively participated, their path to achieving capital efficiency and finally an exit. All the way through, we were among the company’s biggest shareholders. Through our hands-on support, we helped Telemedi’s team in key strategic decisions as well as day to day challenges, focused on delivering value to all shareholders and clients. Additionally, we supported the team in organizational growth and their fundraising efforts helping Telemedi secure the capital they needed to take their business to the next level.

In Poland, telemedicine is an important pillar of healthcare. 80% of Poles rely on it. We have been active in this area since 2014 and it has grown strongly in recent years. We have extensive experience of what is needed and accepted by patients. More than 300,000 patients rely on our services, and we process around half a million medical inquiries every year. We are a trusted partner for all major Polish insurance companies helping them to operate their health insurance products as well as for the public sector. I am pleased that with Mavie we have a partner to strengthen our base, offer new services and bring our know-how to other markets. I would also like to thank my investors and partners helping me build the company. Aleksander and the team of Black Pearls VC were always there whenever I needed to look at something from a different angle or challenge an idea. At the same time, I always felt they trusted my decisions, which is very important for a founder.”

Paweł Sieczkiewicz, CEO of Telemedi

With Mavie, we have set ourselves the goal of supporting people throughout their lives in taking good care of themselves and maintaining and improving their health. We want to support them at every stage of their lives with prevention and rehabilitation services. That is why we analyze gaps and problem areas in current healthcare and focus on innovative services that take people's health needs into account. Telemedicine has become increasingly important in recent years. Telemedi is one of the largest local providers of digital healthcare solutions, with extensive expertise in which telemedicine solutions are relevant and how they can best reach patients. The company has shown considerable growth in recent years. We see a lot of joint potential in strengthening Telemedi's portfolio with new additional services, but also in expanding into other markets beyond Poland,"

Erich Kruschitz and Lukas Mayrl, Managing Directors of Mavie.

Mavie and Telemedi plan to work together to achieve sustainable growth providing accessible healthcare to their customers in CEE. They will focus on expanding the portfolio and exploring new markets.

We proudly report that through our value creation playbook and high-conviction investment strategy, we achieved a 15,2x Cash on Cash return on our initial pre-seed investment in Telemedi. With an overall return of 3,5x (incl. follow on investments), this marks the third time this year that we are returning capital to our Limited Partners, showcasing our dedication in providing our investors with liquidity in these uncertain times.

Our Partner responsible for the deal was Aleksander Dobrzyniecki, who worked closely with Telemedi’s founder Paweł Sieczkiewicz from the very beginning of our partnership in 2019. Aleksander also joined the company Board of Directors most recently serving as Chairman:

Over the years, Paweł and the team have built Telemedi into a market leader thanks to their relentless execution and drive. Being the first VC investor to join Telemedi's journey back in 2019 actively supporting the growth of the company, we are excited about the partnership with Mavie as the next chapter for Telemedi. This transaction is a blueprint for our high conviction early stage strategy aimed at supporting the best founders from pre-seed to exit."‘

Aleksander Dobrzyniecki, Partner at Black Pearls VC

As a matter of fact, this is our sixth exit with a positive return since 2021. We can proudly list the following successful exits in our record: the exit from Skyrise.tech acquired by Etteplan with an 18.6x return in 2021, the acquisition of Nordigen by a fintech unicorn GoCardless in 2022, the exit from Nomi Biotech Corporation to a strategic investor, and the exit from Solwit to Alten Group from France with a 3.16x return. And now, the exit from Telemedi to Mavie Next with a 3.5x return.

As our time with the company comes to an end, we wish all the best to Mavie and the team of Telemedi and we remain confident that this partnership will bring tremendous value both to clients and patients across CEE and beyond.

Our investments in the company were made from several different vehicles. We would like to thank our individual and institutional Limited Partners, including FNP Ventures, Kozminski Business Hub, Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego (supported by RPO Western Pomeranian Voivodeship), and National Research and Development Center. Thank you all for your ongoing trust over the years. This would not have been possible without your support.

About Mavie

Mavie Next develops, establishes, and drives new business models and solutions in the health care sector. The company has been active since 2020. Its goal is to become a holistic, modern healthcare provider that supports and assists people throughout their lives in maintaining and improving their health. Mavie focuses on prevention (staying healthy) and rehabilitation (getting healthy). Products are available to both end customers (B2C) and corporate partners (B2B). Mavie’s active portfolio includes Mavie Work, a provider of company health care with around 150 corporate customers, and Cura Domo, an Austrian market leader in 24-hour care and an expert in active and supervised ageing with around 2,600 caregivers. The brand MavieMe focusses on at-home testing kits which encompass blood and gut microbiome tests. In addition, Mavie cooperates with the PremiQaMed Group Healthcare Companies in the development of healthcare services such as Health Mobil, a mobile healthcare service for corporates.

About Telemedi

Founded in 2014, Telemedi is a provider of a digital healthcare platform combined with in-house doctors and a network of physical clinics. The company’s client base spans from private individuals who need remote or on-site medical care to large corporates and insurance companies. The company’s headcount exceeds 100 non-medical staff and over 700 in-house doctors. Additionally, the company has an integrated network of 2300 clinics and laboratories. Telemedi provides a medical platform, enabling the easy creation of patient care pathways for various medical services. This includes telemedicine, in-person visits, imaging diagnostics, and laboratory tests. The platform also facilitates billing between insurance companies and the medical network and features a marketplace for external integrations. Notably, Telemedi operates in 13 languages, reflecting its commitment to accessibility and global reach.

About Black Pearls VC

Black Pearls VC is an early-stage venture capital firm focused on supporting the leading tech companies from the Baltic Sea region. It invests are pre-seed and seed with a typical ticket of €100k - €1m. Black Pearls VC is a part of the Kauffman Fellows, a global network of 700+ leading VCs. Selected investments include Nordigen, Autenti, Telemedi, Enso, eAgronom. Thanks to its investment strategy, the fund has exited six investments over the past two years, returning capital to investors with a profit. The team of Black Pearls VC anticipates more exits from its current portfolio delivering superior returns to their existing LP base in the coming years, while also launching a new fund.