Flok Health has raised US$12.5m to expand its AI physio service for back pain in the UK and overseas.
The Cambridge-based health technology company will use the Series A funding to expand its back pain service, add new treatment areas and enter overseas markets.
Flok runs an AI-led physiotherapy clinic that offers video-based assessments and treatment through a mobile app.
The company says its system is the first in Europe with regulatory approval to diagnose, triage, treat and discharge patients autonomously across full care pathways.
Finn Stevenson, co-founder and chief executive officer of Flok Health, said: “The most fundamental problem in healthcare today is supply-demand mismatch.
“Billions of people around the world suffer unnecessarily from treatable conditions, and it’s just never going to be possible for traditional clinicians to solve this one patient at a time.
“AI is a generational opportunity to close that supply-demand gap and ensure that anyone, anywhere, can get the best possible care whenever they need it.
“We’re particularly proud to already be scaling our AI MSK clinic in the NHS, and seeing incredible results for patients and services.
“This new funding will allow us to more rapidly scale our existing back pain service, and to expand the scope of our AI-operated clinic to fully manage new high volume clinical pathways, and new international markets.”
Flok said the service is available to more than 2.4m NHS patients across 11 areas.
The company has so far focused on back pain, one of the biggest sources of demand in musculoskeletal care.
Patients can access appointments on demand with no waiting list, while NHS clinicians can spend more time on cases requiring in-person treatment, according to the company.
Flok says it is the first digital musculoskeletal service approved by the Care Quality Commission as a healthcare provider.
The company also says it is the first AI system in Europe to gain Class IIa medical device certification for the autonomous delivery of full care pathways.
Leigh Brody, investor at Albion VC, said: “The supply-demand gap in healthcare is one of the defining challenges of our time.
“There are over 390,000 sitting on waiting lists in England for MSK conditions alone that are entirely treatable.
“What Finn, Ric and the team have done is demonstrate, with real patients in a real health system, that it’s possible to deliver entire care pathways autonomously, at scale, without compromising on outcomes.
“They’ve navigated an extraordinarily complex regulatory environment, earned the trust of NHS partners, and built something that meets patients where they are, removing the practical barriers that often exclude the most vulnerable.
“That combination of clinical rigour, operational execution and patient impact is rare.
“MSK is where they’ve proven the model, but the opportunity ahead is far bigger. Having seen how this team operates, we have real confidence in their ability to deliver it.”
Flok said the approval allows the system to manage care on behalf of the NHS without routine human oversight.
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