Moving to a new country often means navigating a new healthcare system, and medical histories do not always travel with patients. Records can remain scattered across hospitals, stored in different formats and languages, making it difficult for individuals and families to access their complete health information when they need it. UAE-based healthtech startup Vitalls is building a platform designed to address this problem.
Founded in 2023 by Mehdi Bouchenak, Vitalls has secured a $1.5 million investment commitment from Singapore-based EST Growmore, the investment arm of EST Group, as part of its seed round. The agreement includes an option for an additional $1 million, which could provide further capital as the company expands its platform and reaches new customers.
The investment will support the development and rollout of Vitalls’ AI-powered digital health passport, which allows individuals and families to store, manage and share medical records across healthcare providers and countries. The company aims to give patients greater control over their health information, reducing their dependence on individual healthcare institutions to access and transfer medical records.
Building a Digital Passport for Health Records
Vitalls is developing its platform around a challenge faced by internationally mobile individuals and families, particularly those who relocate for work, education or business. When people move between countries, their medical information may not automatically transfer to their new healthcare providers, leaving gaps in their medical history and making continuity of care more difficult.
The company’s digital health passport is designed to give users a central place to manage their health records and share relevant information with healthcare providers when needed. By making medical histories more accessible across borders, Vitalls aims to simplify the process of seeking care in unfamiliar healthcare systems.
The platform also targets enterprises whose employees and families frequently move between countries. For these users, access to medical information across different healthcare systems can be an important part of managing healthcare needs while living and working internationally.
An Investment With Strategic Potential
The investment agreement was announced at the Abu Dhabi Future Health Summit, with EST Growmore joining the company as its anchor investor. The agreement was signed by Bouchenak and Sindhu Bhaskar, Chairman of EST Group.
EST Growmore is a Singapore-registered investment fund focused on cross-border investments and structured equity financing. Its involvement provides Vitalls with capital to advance its product while creating opportunities for a broader commercial relationship.
Beyond the financial commitment, the two companies plan to explore opportunities involving distribution, product development and partnerships across EST Group’s telecommunications and healthcare portfolio. These potential collaborations could help Vitalls reach more users and establish relationships with organisations that already operate across multiple markets.
For a platform built around the movement of health information between countries, access to established distribution networks and healthcare relationships could be important as the company works to expand beyond its initial market.
Bouchenak has described patient-owned health records as an increasingly important direction for healthcare, reflecting the need for individuals to have greater control over their medical information. The investment also signals investor interest in solutions addressing the challenges of fragmented health records and cross-border healthcare access.
Scaling Across Borders
Vitalls enters its next phase at a time when digital health companies are exploring ways to make healthcare information more accessible and connected. Its focus on internationally mobile families gives the company a specific market to serve, while its enterprise offering could create opportunities to work with businesses managing employees across multiple countries.
However, the platform’s long-term success will depend on more than allowing users to store medical documents in one place. Integrating with healthcare providers, ensuring compatibility across different systems and protecting sensitive medical information will be essential to building trust among patients and institutions.
Data protection requirements and healthcare regulations also vary between jurisdictions, creating additional challenges for a company seeking to operate across borders. Vitalls will need to demonstrate that its platform can handle these differences while making medical records genuinely useful to both patients and healthcare professionals.
The additional $1 million option from EST Growmore could provide further financial support as the company develops its product and explores distribution partnerships. For now, the $1.5 million commitment gives Vitalls an opportunity to advance its digital health passport and test whether patient-controlled medical records can become a practical part of healthcare for people living across borders.
