A tech platform that helps doctors transcribe medical notes faster from conversations with patients has raised $12 million, valuing the two-year-old startup at $50 million.
The round for Melbourne-based Lyrebird Health was led by Five V Capital and UK fund Octopus Ventures, with support from Startmate.
The AI-powered medical scribe generates clinical documentation from patient-doctor conversations, saving health practitioners around 6-8 minutes on note writing on every consultation, freeing up time so they can see more patients.
Lyrebird is used on around 30,000 consultations daily in Australia alone, and that figure is growing by more than 10% monthly, hitting 600,000 in May.
The funding will be used for product enhancements, improved integration with electronic medical record partners and for international expansion into the UK and Middle East.
The startup was inspired by cofounder Kai Van Lieshout’s own difficulty in getting to see a specialist for a chronic health condition.
He developed the idea in early 2023 during a two-week hackathon in the Startmate Student Fellowship, meeting his cofounder Linus Talacko, a computer science student, and the pair realised they’d been to primary and secondary school. Four months later, Lyrebird Health became one of 13 startups in the Startmate Winter 23 cohort, scoring its first funding in the process and trialing the product with local GPs.
Van Lieshout, the CEO, said the average clinician spends more than two hours daily focused on documentation rather than direct patient care,
“This administrative burden is driving talented healthcare professionals from the field at precisely the moment we need them most,” he said.
“Our vision is global, but our mission is personal: support the people who care for people. Lyrebird is built in close partnership with clinicians, and that will never change”.
The startups clients includes the Gold Coast Hospital, which reported a 22% increase in patient throughput after using Lyrebird in its outpatient clinics.
More importantly, analysis by the hospital reported that 84% of staff said the Lyrebird platform had a positive impact on their efficiency, with 79% feeling it improved consultation quality through increased focus on patients, and in turn, more than two-thirds (68%) reported their clinician spent more time speaking directly with them.
Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service clinical director Dr James Wilson said their clinicians “initially thought it was too good to be true” when they started using Lyrebird,
“Now they can’t imagine practicing without it. The time savings translate directly to more patients receiving care,” he said.
Octopus Ventures partner Uthish Ranjan said they were impressed by the startup’s Australian traction and international demand.
“Their early success in the UK gives us strong conviction that they’re well-positioned to scale in our local market,” he said.
Five V Capital partner Chris Gillings is joining Lyrebird’s board.
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