Paris-based e-health startup happytal has been acquired by La Poste and becomes a subsidiary of the group. La Poste has been operating in the health sector since 2017 and, through its subsidiary Asten Santé, it provides services to chronic patients at home, provides online appointments and aids in their post-hospitalisation with services.
With this collaboration, both companies aim to bring a range of support to hospitalised patients with digital services to maximise comfortability.
happytal will work with other health subsidiaries of La Poste’s to do the follow-ups before, during, and after hospitalisation with the local services the group is already offering.
La Poste’s goal is to boost happytal into the principal intermediary for hospitals to coordinate and streamline its service offer for hospitals and clinics.
Philip Dorge, deputy managing director in charge of the Services-parcel-package branch at La Poste, says, “The French population is aging, which brings with it a growing need for health care services, both at hospital and at home. By becoming the majority stakeholder in happytal, La Poste has committed to working with healthcare professionals and institutions, seeking to facilitate patient care before, during, and after their hospitalisation.”
happytal’s early days in patient care
happytal, which was founded in 2013, aids in the digitalisation of hospital patient care. It offers logistical solutions, enabling patients to complete their registrations or requests online. It enables healthcare establishments to automate payments. Its network is spread across 130 different hospitals, with 370 employees.
Founded in 2013 by Pierre Lassarat and Romain Revellat, the company received its first institutional support from Partech in 2016 via its venture fund (Partech International Venture VII).
Pierre Lassarat and Romain Revellat, co-founders of happytal, says,” At happytal, we share La Poste’s vision to develop services which care for patients from A to Z and for people short of autonomy; we have held this vision for ten years now. We are convinced of the necessity to synergize the best of technology and humanity to bring about solutions that are both tangible and adapted to users. This has turned a page in our history which we are only starting to write. To share it with La Poste is both a huge source of pride and a demonstration of the importance of our services and the solutions which we have been able to provide to patients and to the personnel of the establishments which we are partnered with.”
Jean-Marc Patouillaud, General Partner at Partech, says, “Since the beginning of our collaboration with happytal, we had full confidence in Romain and Pierre and supported them to create the hospital’s referral partner in terms of quality of patient care, online registrations all the way to post-hospital support.”
happytal’s future coordination and scope of growth
happytal has been collaborating on an experimental basis with La Poste since December 2021. happytal offered postal services in 17 French hospitals as a part of this collaboration. The experimental collaboration was strengthened with shared values of proximity and services.
Delphine Mallet, director of La Poste’s health and autonomy division, says, “The aim of this merger is to capitalise on happytal’s presence in health establishments and its expertise as an integrator to create a single operator made up of interconnected services (administrative, medical, and from proximity) which improves patient support,” adds Delphine Mallet, director of La Poste’s health and autonomy division. “We want to provide comprehensive support to patients while connecting them to medicine from cities.”
About happytal
happytal is an e-health service provider that supports over 400 healthcare facilities, clinics, and nursing homes in their innovation strategy, answering three objectives: digitalise the hospital patient care, improve the patients’ experience, the wellbeing of dependent people, and the quality of life at work for staff.
The company has also developed service solutions so that patients, both those in need of assistance and health workers, have access to more products and services, as well as entertainment and outings.
About Partech
Born in San Francisco and Paris, Partech is one of the most active tech investors in the world, providing seed, venture, and growth-stage entrepreneurs with capital, operational experience, and strategic support. The current portfolio consists of more than 200 firms in over 30 countries, 16 of which are valued at over $1B, including Alan, Jellysmack, ManoMano, Merama, People.ai, Rohlik, SellerX, Sorare, Toss, Wave, Xendit, and Zepz.
