Derry company aiming to increase its turnover from £1m to £5m over the next three years

A Derry company is hoping to increase its turnover from £1m to £5m in the next three years.

Social prescribing tech firm, Elemental Software, is investing over £1.2million in its business in a bid to turn its ambitions into a reality.

The company specialises in social prescribing consultancy services and technology.

Social prescribing is a way of connecting patients in primary care with sources of support within the community.

This has been widely advocated as a means of empowering individuals to manage their own health and wellbeing. 

Jennifer Neff, Co-founder and CEO of Elemental said: “We also hope to increase our turnover from £1m to £5m over the next three years.

"This is ambitious but our research has shown us that social prescribing is an evolving market globally and many opportunities exist in countries such as RoI, Nordics, Canada and Australia.

"Our new investment in R&D will help us to enhance the technical, security and governance standards to proactively win contracts available on the framework."

Leeann Monk, Co-Founder and COO of Elemental Software, said: “Following an initial investment in R&D in 2017, our technology can make it easier for health and social care professionals to refer people with health risks such as mental health, to community based lifestyle interventions.

"This type of referral can reduce demand in GP time and ultimately keep people out of hospital for longer. This is imperative for global health services to operate and as public health budgets worldwide are coming under increasing pressures due to COVID-19, social prescribing has been identified as a growing sector.

“We were recently awarded a place on the new GPIT NHS framework which is in effect a buyer’s catalogue for NHS organisations within primary care.

"Our new investment in R&D will help us to enhance the technical, security and governance standards to proactively win contracts available on the framework.” 

Invest NI has offered £317,810 of support towards Elemental Software’s R&D project, the creation of eight jobs and marketing activities.

All of the jobs are in place.

Welcoming the investment, Dr Vicky Kell, Invest NI’s Director of Innovation, Research & Development said: “We assisted Elemental Software to develop its social prescribing platform to include the ability to integrate with NHS systems.

"This has helped the company win many new contracts, three in Scotland alone.

“This further investment in R&D is helping the company to refine its software and enable it to stay ahead of market trends, maintain business relevancy and will be a great selling point to help it expand into new geographical markets and sectors.

"It is also welcome news that with our support the company has recruited eight new staff to its team to help it further develop sales in international markets."