Europe's most funded digital health company raised £560M to build a pan-European virtual GP—then laid off 400 people as the post-COVID telehealth contraction exposed its burn rate.
Evaluating only Kry / Livi’s profile at its peak — without knowing the outcome — the model ranked Unit economics as the #1 likely cause. Documented cause: Market collapse.
Key Events Timeline
FOUNDING
Kry / Livi founded
LAYOFF
Market downturn forces cuts
SHUTDOWN
Mass Layoff Spiral: Kry / Livi ceases operations
SHUTDOWN
Mass Layoff Spiral: Kry / Livi ceases operations
Full Analysis
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Documented cause
Kry was founded in Stockholm in 2014 (operating as Livi in France and the UK) as a digital GP service offering video consultations with doctors. The company raised £560M from investors including SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Accel, and others, becoming Europe's most funded digital health company. The pandemic drove an enormous surge in telehealth adoption. When healthcare systems reopened fully in 2022, patient volumes at digital-first providers fell as patients returned to physical GP practices. Kry/Livi announced the layoff of 400 employees—approximately 30% of its workforce—in September 2022 as it restructured for a fundamentally smaller post-COVID market.
Lesson
“For European telehealth businesses, model patient acquisition and retention assuming in-person GP appointment wait times return to pre-COVID levels (typically 2-3 days in most European markets). If the business requires longer wait times to remain competitive, COVID was not a market opportunity—it was a temporarily distorted market.”