Emerald, a preventive health platform that combines diagnostics, AI and continuous GP access, has officially launched out of stealth. Despite multiple offers for VC funding, the team opted for strategic angel backing at this stage. The company has raised £625,000 led by Europe’s leading founders, operators and professional athletes.
In its invite-only Alpha, Emerald has already helped uncover early signs of cardiovascular risks, thyroid issues, and metabolic conditions - allowing users to take action before symptoms appear. Its general practitioner team supports users providing guidance, action points and referrals where needed.
Emerald’s mission is to rewire preventive health by helping people track, understand, and act on their health - before they get sick. Unlike full-stack players like Sweden’s Neko Health that operate their own clinics, Emerald partners with hundreds of diagnostics centres across the UK. Users can pop in for a comprehensive 10-minute screening—covering blood, urine and physical metrics, and then get personalised health plans based on their unique data, with a GP in the loop.
With thousands in Emerald’s waitlist and Beta now launching to the public, Emerald is expanding access in waves as it calibrates GP availability. Its early users have included Team GB athletes, clinicians, and multiple VCs who joined the waitlist just to try the product.
Co-founders Alexander Badalyan and Anton Shchipanov initially set out to build a premium credit card platform - a UK challenger to Amex, Yonder and the like. But through early user interviews, something unexpected came up.
“We asked people what they’d include in their dream Amex membership benefits. So many mentioned prevention perks – annual health screens, GP access, health tracking,” said Badalyan. “At first, we thought we’d build something like a credit card with wellness benefits. But we quickly realised people weren’t asking for perks – they were voicing unmet needs around their health.”
This insight led the team to switch fully into healthtech and bring on their third co-founder, Dr Dan McNally, to lead Emerald’s clinical strategy and operations.
Notable investors in the round include Mart Abramov, employee #8 at Wise and founder of TaxScouts; Mike Benchimol, former COO at Checkout.com and now Head of Ops at AI firm H Company; Jane Austin, former Head of Product at Babylon Health; Patrick Bamford, professional footballer; Harry Glorikian, General Partner at Scientia Ventures; Nikolay Tretiakov, General Partner at Leafy Tunnel; and Johann Huber, founder of Soma Analytics, which exited to NASDAQ-listed PRE.
