TurnUp raises €2M seed to cut healthcare no-shows
What's the deal? TurnUpDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, a Ghent-based startup that helps dental and medical practices reduce no-shows and last-minute cancellations, has raised $2M in a seed round led by NewionDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, with participation from RDY Ventures.
The company has built an AI platform that integrates with existing practice management systems to predict missed appointments and automate follow-up actions. By analysing historical patient data, scheduling patterns, and external factors, it identifies at-risk appointments and proactively contacts patients.
Its AI receptionist, Elissa, can reach patients in multiple languages and outside office hours — handling confirmations, cancellations, rescheduling, and waiting list management.
Why now? Founded in 2022 by Nicolas De Bruyne and Jona Decubber, TurnUp has gained real traction. It now serves more than 250 practices across Belgium, the Netherlands, and the UK, covering over 2,500 dentists. The company says it has prevented more than 500,000 no-shows and saved receptionists tens of thousands of hours.
Koen Lepez, who joined as an investor and became chief executive officer in 2024, sees a clear path to scale: "We always start from the same question: how do we make sure every chair in a practice is filled? No-shows are the biggest obstacle to occupancy."
The funding will go toward expanding commercial operations, strengthening the technical team, and accelerating growth in the UK, where TurnUp is already piloting with a group of 400 practices.
What could go wrong? Healthcare IT is notoriously fragmented. Every country — and often every practice — runs different management software, which makes integration complex and time-consuming. Expanding across Europe and eventually the US means navigating varying data privacy regimes, from GDPR to HIPAA.
Competition is another factor. Appointment management and patient communication tools are a crowded space, with incumbents and well-funded rivals vying for the same customers.
The signal: Newion, the investment fund leading this round, is backing TurnUp at a stage where the startup already covers more than 2,500 dentists and is piloting with 400 practices in the UK — an unusually strong operational footprint for an early-stage company raising its first institutional round. With no-shows costing the healthcare sector hundreds of billions of euros annually and most practices still relying on manual processes, the gap between the size of the problem and the sophistication of existing solutions remains vast.
Read more: Tech.eu
