Meet the founders
Balto started with a problem both founders, Guido de Rooij and Koert van Ittersum, had seen up close. People around them struggled to take medication as prescribed: a dose forgotten, side effects appearing days after treatment had started, a change in medication leading to someone unknowingly taking the wrong dose. Surely, they thought, we can do better.
Their backgrounds brought together two perspectives. Van Ittersum, professor of marketing and consumer wellbeing at the University of Groningen, brought behavioural science: people do not automatically do what is best for them, even when they know what they should do. De Rooij brought medical and IT expertise, and an understanding of how technology could be embedded in healthcare.
Together they saw a gap. A diagnosis is made, treatment is prescribed and information is provided, but much of what happens afterwards is left to the patient. Balto was created to bridge that gap, educating, monitoring and guiding patients before, between and after contact with healthcare professionals.
From One Problem to a Platform
Balto initially focused on medication adherence, but conversations with healthcare professionals soon revealed that the same digital infrastructure could support many more forms of care. Encouraged in part by RUG Ventures to diversify, the founders explored those opportunities. Today Balto supports dozens of care pathways for GP practices and pharmacies, and the service is also used in hospital care, including at the University Medical Center Groningen.
Commercialising that is complex. Balto works with healthcare providers, who use the service with patients, while funding may ultimately come from a third party such as a health insurer. Financing and market adoption are closely connected, and that takes time.
Where RUG Ventures came in
Balto almost did not get the opportunity to make that journey. After speaking to numerous potential funding partners, the founders were referred to Triade, which recognised the potential and introduced them to RUG Ventures.
At the time, Balto had only a limited digital infrastructure and little hard evidence of what it could become. The decision required belief in the founders, the problem and their vision. “It really came down to vision, conviction and trust,” Van Ittersum says.
RUG Ventures and Triade invested, enabling Balto to develop its infrastructure and run its first pilot with Apotheek De Drie Stellingen. “Balto would have stranded,” Van Ittersum says. “We had already spoken to many parties, and that route was the last real opportunity we saw. Without their belief in us, Balto would not have seen the light of day.”
The contribution went beyond capital. RUG Ventures continued to provide advice, support and critical reflection. One piece of advice proved particularly consequential: don’t rely on medication adherence alone, diversify. Combined with feedback from healthcare professionals, that helped broaden Balto into the platform it is today.
Where things stand
Balto is now moving from validated innovation towards commercial adoption. In pharmacy care it is building relationships with individual pharmacies and larger pharmacy organisations; in primary care, conversations are under way with regional organisations that could open up larger groups of GP practices. The question is no longer whether healthcare organisations are willing to engage. They are. The next step is converting that interest into implementations, contracts, recurring revenue and scale.
Meanwhile the original hypothesis is being confirmed in practice: digital guidance before, between and after healthcare encounters gives patients more attention while saving professionals time. The ambition is nationwide coverage and a leading role in digital primary care, freeing up scarce healthcare capacity and ultimately helping reduce costs.
The name reflects that ambition. Balto was the sled dog that helped deliver lifesaving medicine to Nome, Alaska, during the 1925 serum run. A century later, this Balto has a different journey to support: helping patients stay on course once treatment has begun.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.
Advice to other founders
Van Ittersum’s advice to researchers and healthcare professionals considering entrepreneurship takes two words: “No surrender.”
And the word that best describes the relationship with RUG Ventures? Trust. “They believed in us when there was very little evidence yet of what Balto could become. That trust gave us the opportunity to prove it.”
Find out more about Balto on their website.