Flok Health has raised USD $12.5 million in an oversubscribed Series A round led by Albion VC.
Existing investors Eka VC and Form Ventures joined the round, alongside new investor Mercia Ventures. The Cambridge-based health technology group will use the funding to expand its physiotherapy service for back pain across the UK and add new treatment areas and overseas markets.
Flok runs an AI-led physiotherapy clinic that provides video-based assessments and treatment through a mobile app. According to the company, its system is the first in Europe with regulatory approval to diagnose, triage, treat and discharge patients autonomously across full care pathways. It is available to more than 2.4 million NHS patients across 11 areas.
So far, the business has focused on back pain, one of the biggest sources of demand in musculoskeletal care. Patients can access appointments on demand with no waiting list, while NHS clinicians can spend more time on cases that require in-person treatment.
Regulatory Status
Flok says it is the first digital musculoskeletal service approved by the Care Quality Commission as a healthcare provider, and the first AI system in Europe to gain Class IIa medical device certification for the autonomous delivery of full care pathways. According to the company, that approval allows the system to manage care on behalf of the NHS without routine human oversight.
The technology uses footage of a human physiotherapist to create a video consultation that responds in real time to what the patient says and does. Patients can self-refer or be referred into the service, complete an initial assessment on their phone, and are then directed either into the digital pathway or to another NHS service if their needs are more complex.
Some patients with more complex symptoms receive an additional telehealth assessment from a member of Flok's clinical team before treatment is approved. Those accepted for treatment can then use the app for weekly video appointments, exercises and pain management support, while human clinicians remain available to respond to voice messages during working hours.
Recent NHS deployments have reduced waiting lists in some regions by half, according to Flok. In one NHS trust, the AI pathway saved an average of 856 hours of clinical time a month, the company said.
In a recent NHS rollout in England, more than 80% of patients reported that the AI clinic was "as good or better than" traditional in-person physiotherapy, Flok said. The company added that patients using the service recorded an average improvement of 6.8 points on the MSK-HQ measure, which it described as clinically significant.
Demand Pressures
The funding comes as NHS services face long waiting lists for musculoskeletal treatment. Flok cited more than 390,000 people on waiting lists in England for musculoskeletal conditions, while low back pain remains a major cause of disability and work absence.
Early analysis suggests Flok's digital service is reaching more deprived patients on average than comparable NHS face-to-face physiotherapy services in the same areas. The company linked that to practical barriers such as travel, time off work, caring duties and inflexible appointments.
Founded in 2022 by former medic and athlete Finn Stevenson and technologist Ric da Silva, Flok is now training its system for other high-volume pathways, including hip pain, knee pain and women's pelvic health conditions.
Those services are due to launch in the UK this year, which Flok said would extend the scope of its clinic to conditions affecting more than 20 million people a year in the UK.
"The most fundamental problem in healthcare today is supply-demand mismatch. Billions of people around the world suffer unnecessarily from treatable conditions, and it's just never going to be possible for traditional clinicians to solve this one patient at a time. AI is a generational opportunity to close that supply-demand gap and ensure that anyone, anywhere, can get the best possible care whenever they need it. We're particularly proud to already be scaling our AI MSK clinic in the NHS, and seeing incredible results for patients and services. This new funding will allow us to more rapidly scale our existing back pain service, and to expand the scope of our AI-operated clinic to fully manage new high volume clinical pathways, and new international markets," said Finn Stevenson, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Flok Health.
Albion VC backed the company because of the scale of unmet demand in musculoskeletal care and Flok's progress in NHS settings.
"The supply-demand gap in healthcare is one of the defining challenges of our time. There are over 390,000 sitting on waiting lists in England for MSK conditions alone that are entirely treatable. What Finn, Ric and the team have done is demonstrate, with real patients in a real health system, that it's possible to deliver entire care pathways autonomously, at scale, without compromising on outcomes. They've navigated an extraordinarily complex regulatory environment, earned the trust of NHS partners, and built something that meets patients where they are, removing the practical barriers that often exclude the most vulnerable. That combination of clinical rigour, operational execution and patient impact is rare. MSK is where they've proven the model, but the opportunity ahead is far bigger. Having seen how this team operates, we have real confidence in their ability to deliver it," said Leigh Brody, Investor at Albion VC.