French healthtech company Doctolib is entering the UK market by acquiring Medicus, a software company that builds tools for GP practices in the NHS. The company will continue to operate under founder Emile Axelrad.
UK primary care software has been controlled for more than two decades by two players: Optum, the UnitedHealth subsidiary, and TPP. No new entrant had successfully broken in until Medicus became the first clinical software system to receive NHS validation in 25 years in June 2025. By acquiring Medicus, Doctolib bought its way past a barrier that would have taken any new entrant years to clear on its own.
As part of the deal, Doctolib plans to invest more than £100 million in the UK over the next few years. The company aims to hire 150 people and open a research and development centre focused on primary care.
The UK is Doctolib’s fifth market, following France, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands, and by far its most strategically complex. NHS GP practices run on fragmented legacy software, creating an administrative burden for frontline staff at a time when the system is already under pressure from staff shortages, ageing populations, and rising rates of chronic illness.
Medicus was built specifically for that environment. Its platform integrates directly with the NHS App and was designed around the day-to-day workflows of NHS practice teams rather than being adapted from a non-UK system.
Doctolib’s plan is to layer its own broader software suite and AI products on top of Medicus’ local NHS knowledge: reducing documentation time, improving care coordination, and strengthening patient follow-up.
The company, founded in 2013, now works with more than 500,000 healthcare professionals and 90 million patients across Europe, offering products that span appointment booking, secure messaging, medical records, financial tools, and AI clinical assistants.
