Joey

Joey is a regulated digital paediatric service built on a straightforward premise: children are not small adults, and healthcare designed for grown-ups does not scale down neatly. In the UK, around one in three GPs has any postgraduate paediatric training, waiting lists to see a paediatrician average more than 18 weeks, and a large share of the five million annual A&E attendances by children could be handled earlier and elsewhere. Parents are left choosing between a ten-minute appointment weeks away and searching their symptoms online.

The company delivers care through chat. Parents set up a family profile, then message Joey about a concern — a rash, a cough, a feeding problem — sending photos or voice notes rather than trying to describe symptoms down a phone line. NHS-trained children's doctors and nurses respond, typically within the hour, between 8am and 8pm seven days a week. Where treatment is appropriate they diagnose and prescribe, with medication delivered to the door; where a case needs escalating they route the family to the right specialist. Clinicians follow up until the child has recovered rather than closing the case at first contact. Families see the same clinical team each time, which builds a picture of the child that a rotating cast of GPs cannot. The service is sold as a monthly or annual membership, with a single consultation available at £75 for parents who want to try it first.

Founded by Sasha Nagarajah and Dr Abhinav Bhansali, who met through Zinc's venture-building programme, Joey started as a WhatsApp pilot that delivered more than 600 hours of paediatric support to over 150 families across ten months. The founders then spent roughly a year securing full healthcare regulation, making Joey the UK's only digital-only regulated paediatric provider — a slow route for an early-stage company, but a durable one in a category where trust is the product. Joey raised $1.4M in pre-seed funding in July 2026, backed by Zinc, SyndicateRoom's Access EIS fund, Innovate UK and a group of angel investors, and is building distribution partnerships with nurseries and employee benefits platforms.