LeQuest, an innovator in advanced online trainings for medical devices, recently secured a EUR 4 million investment to support commercial expansion and continue its effort to promote improved patient safety in the use of medical technology.
The investment featured participation from Philips, together with Noaber Ventures, Nextgen Ventures and existing investors.
From left to right: Peter Haasjes (Noaber Ventures), Tim Mulder (Noaber Ventures), Paul Baan (Noaber Ventures), Maarten Rutgers (Tablomonto Venture Capital), Frans van Houten (CEO Royal Philips), Hicham Shatou (CEO LeQuest), Lara Koole (Philips Health Technology Ventures), Matthijs Blokhuis (Noaber), Wouter Pomp (LeQuest).
“LeQuest’s ability to drive improved patient safety and clinical workflow efficiency highlight themes critical to our new Health Technology Venture Fund, which is designed to identify and support innovative future commercial partners for Philips,” says Rich Wilmot, head of Philips Health Technology Ventures. “Leading this financing round reflects our belief LeQuest’s value is its vendor agnostic, education-as-a-service approach to train a hospital’s staff on the proper use of all medical equipment. Better trained staff means fewer avoidable errors in the clinical setting – a goal Philips and every vendor should team up to drive forward. LeQuest is well positioned to execute on this cross-vendor vision.”
“The technology of LeQuest is a logical next step in the evolution of training in regards to the critical processes within organizations”, according to Paul Baan, founder of Noaber Foundation. “The new technology of LeQuest enables hospitals to bring the training efforts back to their own premises and this will eventually lead to more efficiency and better quality of care due to improved training availability.”
“We are inspired by the potential of today’s innovations in medical technology. However, we must ensure we do not lose track of the human side of it” says Hicham Shatou, CEO of LeQuest. The realization not all healthcare professionals receive adequate training in the safe use of medical devices led to the founding of LeQuest. “I have personally witnessed this leading to very critical situations and even putting patient’s safety at risk.” added Shatou, “it was an eye-opener for me, and a real problem I knew we needed to solve”.
Shatou is not alone in his view. The revisions of the European Medical Device Regulation (MDR) and the Dutch Covenant for Medical Technology represent examples of recent calls-to-action ensuring better patient safety in the use of medical technology. Manufacturers and hospitals are also taking a more urgent stance. Several have proactively initiated partnerships with LeQuest, reflecting this urgency, to properly train and certify healthcare professionals in the use of medical devices.
The medical device industry is recalibrating its approach toward patient safety and service models in general, leading to opportunity for novel offerings such as LeQuest’s e-training platform to accelerate this change. Philips’ participation as the lead in the LeQuest financing and the growing number of manufacturers partnering with LeQuest validates the industry’s desire to move in this direction. “We are proud of the strong network of investors and partners we have attracted and together we look forward to increasing our impact globally,” says Shatou.
About Noaber Ventures
Noaber Ventures is the impact investment arm of the Noaber Foundation, a family foundation with the mission to drive change and improving health. The focus is on healthcare and healthy living. The foundation acts both as venture philanthropist and impact investor: Noaber Ventures, investing in Healthcare technology companies that contributes to vitality and independency of people and smart delivery of healthcare. For more information, visit the website https://www.noaber.com
About Nextgen Ventures
Nextgen Ventures is an investment fund in which healthcare insurers Menzis and De Friesland Zorgverzekeraar, Stichting Triade (a subsidiary of the University Medical Centre of Groningen) and Noaber Foundation have invested. NextGen Ventures invests in knowledge-intensive companies that bring about a change in healthcare, preferably potential breakthrough innovations within health IT of medical technology. For more information, visit the website http://www.nextgenventures.nl
About LeQuest
LeQuest creates interactive and customized e-trainings that empower healthcare professionals to use medical technology with confidence and competence. The company’s innovative approach to online training improves the overall implementation and use of medical devices while relieving their customers of regulatory pressures – so they can focus on what is important: their patients. For more information about LeQuest, visit our website at http://www.lequest.com
For Media Inquiries
LeQuest Office: +31 (0)10 310 0850
