Nelson Advisors interviewed by Healthcare Business International for their 'Doctolib buys Medicus and enters the UK' story

Nelson Advisors partner Lloyd Price was interviewed by Healthcare Business International for their 'Doctolib buys Medicus and enters the UK' story.

Source: https://www.healthcarebusinessinternational.com/doctolib-buys-medicus-and-enters-the-uk/

Lloyd Price, partner at M&A advisory firm Nelson Advisors, tells HBI the UK offers significant scaling potential. “The UK market, with its 6,500 GP practices and 63.8 million patients, offers the scale required to offset the high customer acquisition costs (CAC) associated with recruiting doctors across different regulatory environments in Germany and Italy. By becoming the “Operating System” for NHS primary care, Doctolib can capture recurring SaaS revenues while leveraging its AI modules to drive Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) growth, Price says.

Doctolib reached Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) of €348 million (~$409.6 mn) in 2024, growing 22.5% YoY. Its revenue was 99% subscription-based from healthcare practitioners, with Germany contributing nearly 20% of ARR and 28% of new revenue inQ1 2025.

Growth has slowed in France and Germany following regulatory changes, while Italy and other European markets are still maturing. “The key question is how they continue to expand their total addressable market in Europe,” Price adds.

“The UK healthcare software market is competitive but still under-penetrated in areas like workflow and patient access. It is ‘winnable but expensive’ for a new entrant,” Price explains. The broader UK digital health market is large and growing rapidly, with estimates in the tens of billions and a projected high-teens to low-twenties CAGR through 2030–2035. Core EPR and primary care software is highly concentrated, with high switching costs and long deployment cycles.

In contrast, Price says areas such as AI analytics, remote monitoring, and virtual care are more fragmented, with multiple cloud-native entrants integrating via APIs. Investor interest and expansion Doctolib’s UK performance will hinge on execution of its go-to-market strategy, particularly NHS alignment, competition with entrenched incumbents, and proving clear incremental value beyond existing systems, as per Price.

Market sources see the company as a strong IPO candidate within the next 18 months. It recently completed a €300 million (~$345 million) secondary share sale in April 2026, valuing the business at €3.6 billion (~$4.24 billion).

Price argues that its UK expansion adds “the scale and clinical depth necessary to sustain a public valuation in the range of $6 billion to $8 billion (~€5.1 bn to €6.8 bn).”