Doctolib cofounder and CEO Stanislas Niox-Chateau
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Doctolib, once France’s most valuable startup, was worth $6.4 billion at its previous funding round in 2022.
French health tech Doctolib is in talks to raise a large secondary investment, in the range of a few hundred million dollars, where Generation Investment Management would buy a stake from existing shareholders, three sources told Forbes.
Doctolib reached a valuation of $6.4 billion at its most recent venture funding in March 2022, making it the highest valued French startup at the time (that crown has since been taken by AI startup Mistral, now worth $14 billion). One source said that the valuation for the pending investment may be roughly flat with the previous round. The funding conversations are early and details of the investment could change.
Doctolib cofounder and CEO Stanislas Niox-Chateau did not respond to emails. Generation declined to comment.
Doctolib handles administrative work for doctors and medical workers, including helping patients book appointments, in France, Germany and Italy. It has raised a total of $842 million from investors that include Eurazeo, General Atlantic and Accel, according to VC database PitchBook. Generation Investment Management, chaired by former Vice President Al Gore, invests in healthcare startups as part of a broader thesis on sustainable investing.
Niox-Chateau, who earlier started venture capital fund Otium, is a 2016 alum of the Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe list. He launched Doctolib in 2013 as a booking management platform designed to make it easier for patients to make medical appointments and for doctors to handle their schedules. That might sound simple, but it’s an enormous frustration for both sides, leaving patients struggling to get appointments and doctors’ offices trying to shoehorn in those who need care the most, while also facing gaps in their day due to no-shows.
Doctolib reported earlier this year that its annualized revenue from subscriptions reached some $400 million for 2024 (at current exchange rates), and that it had reduced its losses for the year to about $60 million.
The Paris-based startup has been so successful that France’s competition regulator noted in November that its market share exceeded 90% of online medical appointment bookings in recent years. The French antitrust watchdog, l’Autorité de la Concurrence, shared that finding in a report where it fined Doctolib $5.4 million for abusing its market dominance with exclusivity deals, and snapping up its then main rival MonDocteur in 2018. Doctolib was reported to be appealing the ruling.
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