HG50: Evergreen Life

Evergreen Life is a technology company that puts people in control of their own health records. The Manchester business is combining healthcare with AI to digitally transform the market. It provides a health and wellbeing platform to over 200 GP surgeries and 60 hospitals nationwide, enabling clinicians to improve their services to patients.

The app currently collects data from over 3m people on areas such as diet, lifestyle and genetics to provide a more holistic picture of users’ health.

It was founded in 2014 by Stephen Critchlow, a trained pharmacist, who built and sold his first business Ascribe for £65m in 2013.

“I came up with the idea whilst studying in Manchester. I’ve always wanted to create databases of people’s health records to enhance health services. At the time nobody was calling it AI – it was just maths,” Critchlow said. “Our data collection makes healthcare much more efficient, reduces waiting lists and frees up time to focus on increasing the quality of care,” he adds.

In the current system, if a patient needs to see a dermatologist it can take up to three visits at a GP clinic or local hospital before getting the right treatment.

Evergreen Life is now the largest provider of dermatology services to the NHS – helping to reduce waiting lists from 35 weeks to just two days. “We’re calling it ‘couch to biopsy’,” he said.

The business has a team of 65 technologists working from its headquarters in Manchester, along with almost 400 staff at the 66 clinics it owns across the UK.

“We’re lucky that we’re able to attract the right people, and have a leadership team that’s at the top of their game,” said Critchlow, who now acts as executive chairman.

Two years ago, the business welcomed Caroline Shaw as CEO. She’s held previous executive positions at The Christie and more recently at The Queen’s Hospital Kings Lynn. Stephen Dorrell, former Secretary of State for Health, who was instrumental in lobbying for health record ownership for the public, is a director on the board.

The company has achieved fast organic growth by delivering a new model for healthcare. It has racked up annual revenues of £36m by securing contracts with the NHS, and charging a license fee for its software.

On the future direction of the business, Shaw said: “We expect growth from further selling our software, developing new market-driven products, driving digital transformation to enhance productivity in health services and future-proofing new care models. On the B2C side, we’re expanding our consumer health product offering.”

Critchlow hinted that there could be an “IPO before the tail end of 2025.” He added: “The market is charged in terms of its potential benefit. What we now need is access to capital to further develop our products and help make acquisitions of more traditional companies looking to digitalise.”

With Evergreen’s ability to serve global populations and transform health services with AI, the company is primed for global domination. “I suppose if we get it right, we could be sitting on the next trillion dollar business,” Critchlow said.

For more information on the High Growth 50, click here.