Using bespoke algorithms to dispatch medical transport faster, Ambler has secured a major French health tender

For quite a while mobility has generated investor buzz thanks to tech's ability to digitise resource allocation. Primarily digital tools like GPS, intelligent connectivity and other visibility products have made it far easier to track and allocate operating fleets.

Late last year, however, new Atomico data revealed a tailing off in venture dollars into European mobility, at least in the context of recent highs. Observers witnessed a gradual diminishing in earlier drivers of transport deal flow, particularly in regards to quick commerce management.

The mood music may have shifted but lucrative opportunities remain to translate mobility innovation into new verticals.

In healthcare, Parisian startup Ambler is addressing a significant pain point, with its tool designed to optimise medical support traffic.

A recent tender award will see Ambler's software platform soon deployed for kidney treatment in Alsace, in partnership with the region's association of artificial kidney use.

Seven publicly-funded centres for kidney dialysis will adopt the digitised mobility tech, including public treatment underwritten by the national health insurance fund.

Amber's advisory team includes sector luminaries from the Parisian carpooling platform BlablaCar and G7, a Tencent-backed Chinese truck visibility service. Tech.eu last covered Amber, founded four years ago, for its €6 million series A raise in 2020.

The platform itself enables prompt booking of medical transport, whether ambulances, light medical vehicles or taxis, thanks to a bespoke algorithm that calculates the best route to reach the patient, and by which vehicle.

The result, Ambler claims, is an 80% shared transit cost saving, boosted from 10% using traditional channels. It also promises a guarantee for each ride.

These latest tenders add to Ambler's existing partnership roster, including regional hospital boards in southern Paris, Saint-Maurice and the Parisian hinterlands that make up Île-de-France, the country's largest administrative region by population.

But up till now Ambler largely had dealt with transport for chronic disease care, which veers from emergencies to fairly routine journeys with a lot of scope for prediction.

Expanding into transit of kidney dialysis patients and/or transplant materials verges deeper into mission-critical responses to acute injuries, which suggests French authorities are keen on the potential efficiencies.

The latest tenders extend the same principles connecting medical rides to long-term illness sufferers, limiting clinical hours lost arranging and waiting on said travel.

According to Ambler the first rides provided under the new tenders will commence in quarter one '23 and could lead to further contracts for kidney care requirements elsewhere in France, for instance in Paris and Lyon.

Ambler's investors include the Silicon Valley VC Partech, French public investor Bpifrance and European mid-market investor Idinvest Partners.

Thomas Bournac, Ambler president, commented: "Winning this tender is key to our development. After guiding our ecosystem through the implementation of article 80 of the 2018 PLFSS, our ambitions have grown further. It’s time to demonstrate our capacity to optimize the majority of medical transportation while satisfying all parties: patients, medical transportation and providers, and health insurance."