Helping children reduce anxiety when it comes to surgery,Little Journey raises $3.1 million

London-based Little Journey has raised $3.1 million in a funding round led by Octopus Ventures. According to the startup, the new capital will be used to further develop their offering and gear up for international expansion.

Let’s be honest, no one likes surgery. It’s a scary process that involves a lot of unknowns in an unfamiliar environment and is rarely a pleasant experience. And this is speaking from the viewpoint of an adult, one who understands the logical process that is about to take place.

Now wind back the hands of time and it should come as no surprise that up to 75% of all children that undergo a healthcare procedure experience significant anxiety. So drastic can this anxiety be that often sedatives or the use of physical restraints need to be employed for the procedure to go ahead.

Co-founded by anaesthetist Dr. Chris Evans and product designer Sophie Copley, Little Journey is offering an alternative to the aforementioned methods of calming children before medical procedures via an app that uses friendly animations that are personalised to a child’s age, their hospital, and the procedure they are having.

In conjunction with the app, the Little Journey platform includes management tools for hospitals and clinical trials. For hospitals, Little Journey allows healthcare staff access to tailor the content in the patient’s app, and edit key information along the journey so they can give each patient personalised care from start to finish.

According to Little Journey, the platform has been configured for more than 50 NHS Trusts and is available in 16 different languages.

On the investment, Octopus Ventures’ Joe Stringer commented, “Chris, Sophie, and the Little Journey team have developed a platform that not only has a hugely positive impact on the kids it’s built to help, but reduces costs for hospitals delivering paediatric care and smooths the creation of new, better treatments for children.”

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