The venture capital fund South Central Ventures, led by Jure Mikuž with a team of managing partners, has announced its newest portfolio acquisition – the LittleDot app. A platform, built by Dario Šimović and Dr. Milivoj Jovančević, connects parents to pediatricians and other specialists in real-time and ensures that parents get verified advice and track their child’s health progress. Central Ventures commits to Croatian team LittleDot to invest up to EUR 600k, depending on the needs of this first investment round.
This investment will help the LittleDot team on their mission of digital transformation of children care. The platform is allowing parents to come quickly and easily in contact with child health experts anytime, anywhere, 24 hours a day regardless of geographical location.
Online help to child health
Globally, there is a lack of pediatricians, in Croatia 1 pediatrician covers over 950 children. First-time parents face much stress as most attention is required during non-working hours. That is forcing them to seek help from unreliable sources (internet, friends …) or to call their pediatrician at an inappropriate time.
Due to the increasing number of smartphone users and rising medical demand in remote areas, digital solutions are revolutionizing the medical sector. Telemedicine market is expected to significantly grow at 18.7% annually between 2016 and 2022. Childcare is still a medical sector awaiting changes as parents want prompt answer and solution to assist them with their needs and the needs of their child.
LittleDot has therefore created a specialized parenting service (web and mobile app) to connect parents with pediatricians and other experts who then receive verified advice regarding their child’s health. Parents are able to create a health record of their child on their mobile phone or PC. The application provides parents to keep the child’s diary through 12 functions and the platform also provides them with useful information on growth, development, immunization, and fever. This ensures a better communication with the doctor. Furthermore, it gives parents the ability to contact the best experts at any given time without having to go to their clinic in person.
The platform offers 3 services to parents: 1) Short written consultation via SMS 2) A call with a pediatrician, or 3) A second opinion. In all three services, parents can choose a specialist who they want to get in touch with. All this can be done from the comfort of their home by accessing LittleDot mobile app or web browser. LittleDot’s doctors are carefully selected medical professionals with years of experience in their fields.
Technology which connects parents and doctors
LittleDot has been founded in 2017 by Dario Šimović (CEO) with the assistance of the renowned Croatian pediatrician Dr. Milivoj Jovančević (CMO) as an answer to challenges faced by modern parents. Dario worked for over 10 years as Manager in CISCO. He accumulated a vast experience in the implementation and growth of ICT solutions in the region before opening his company. Together with Dr. Jovančević and their advisor Krešo Troha (itSoft), they set the foundation for the ambitious team with a vision that “every person has the right to the best healthcare, access to top medical professionals and their reliable health tips”.
”We, as Littledot team, are very pleased and at the same time excited that our partner, South Central Ventures has put faith in our vision, team and company. We are looking forward to achieving exponential growth in targeted markets and we expect high satisfaction from our current and future clients”, said Dario Šimović, CEO of LittleDot. ”We believe in synergies between conventional medical knowledge and technology. Our goal is to make the service of LittleDot convenient and easy to use,” said Dr. Milivoj Jovančević, Chief Medical Officer.
The investment will be targeted to further develop the platform and release new services. With the help of South Central Ventures, LittleDot plans to strengthen their presence in Croatia and set operations in multiple countries in SEE and Western Europe. ”We are thrilled to join Dario and his team at LittleDot. We strongly believe that mobile technologies can significantly improve the quality of people's lives if utilized properly. I am sure LittleDot will save many parents’ sleepless nights even on their trips far away from their pediatricians and other medical specialists,” said Jure Mikuž, a Managing Partner at South Central Ventures.
About South Central Ventures
With offices in Belgrade, Zagreb, and Skopje, South Central Ventures (SCV), through Enterprise Innovation Fund (ENIF), is focused on tech companies in the Western Balkans. The €40 million fund is dedicated primarily to early stage and growth investments. Within the fund’s ‘seed pocket’, € 1.5 million is allocated for investments of up to € 100 000 per company. The majority of the fund is allocated for early stage and growth investments of up to € 3 million per company. These investments are intended to fuel the international business expansion and growth of the most promising tech startups that can show traction and prove their potential to “make it big”.
SCV aims to support the startup system in the region, and help founders daring to bring their businesses to global markets. Among SCV’s previous investments are Agrivi, Bulb, Cognism, Inplayer, Letz, Alchemy, Virtus Vita, City Expert, Work Puls, Hunch Insights, TradeCore, and Cube Team.
For further information, please contact:
LittleDot
Dario Šimović, CEO
dsimovic@more-studio.hr
South Central Ventures
Krunoslava Ivanković, Chief Culture Officer
krunoslava@sc-ventures.com
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South Central Ventures
LittleDot
