Pre-Seed4 July 2024

Saltroad raises £575k pre-seed funding from Techstart Ventures and Ascension VC to launch a therapy marketplace

The pre-seed round was led by Techstart Ventures and Ascension VC to support platform development and hiring.

£575KPre-Seed

Saltroad is an online platform connecting parents with qualified speech and language therapists to reduce waiting list delays. The start-up seeks to alleviate capacity issues across the National Health Service and private sector.

Saltroad has secured £575k in pre-seed funding to build an online marketplace for speech and language therapy. The round was led by Techstart Ventures and Ascension VC, providing capital to address NHS waiting lists and fragmented private provision in the UK. The proceeds will be directed towards product development and expanding the engineering team in Belfast ahead of a planned launch.

The start-up was founded by Debi and Darren Lester, drawing on clinical experience and marketplace background following the sale of Specifiedby.com. Two million children in the UK currently require speech therapy, with assessments often taking up to two years through public channels. Saltroad intends to streamline access by pairing families with practitioners seeking flexible caseloads.

From the founder

"There are some 20,000 speech therapists in the UK with 5,000 in private practice and 15,000 in the NHS, many of whom are keen to take on part-time private work. If we can unlock this pool of talent, it goes some way towards alleviating the problem and helping parents to get an assessment within days not years"

Darren Lester

Co-founder at Saltroad

Investor perspective

"We are delighted to be able to support such a dynamic couple who want to grow their business from Northern Ireland. As a digital marketplace platform, it has tremendous growth potential beyond the UK."

Audrey Osborne

Techstart Ventures