Rewarding healthy habits: why we invested in Elfie

By Eric Martineau-Fortin, Founder & Managing Partner, Bérénice Moustial, Vice President, and Spencer Henry, Vice President

Headquartered in the US, with roots in Asia and a fast-growing presence in Europe, Elfie is building a global digital health super-app to support people living with chronic conditions stay on track with their treatments. The app is free to users and combines self-monitoring tools, AI-powered coaching, and gamified rewards to support long-term adherence.

Behind the scenes, Elfie partners with insurers and pharmaceutical companies, who pay for the platform in exchange for real-world adherence data and engagement tools.

It’s a win-win: patients get support to follow their treatment, while insurers and pharma get what the system has long lacked: reliable, continuous, and structured data on adherence and behavior.

Elfie has already helped over 700,000 members across 35 countries, and this new round will support its next phase of growth, including US expansion and the launch of Elfie Research, a decentralised platform enabling clinical trials to be conducted directly within Elfie’s highly engaged user base to deliver measurable, population-scale health impact.

Helping solve one of healthcare’s biggest challenges, chronic conditions

Chronic diseases such as hypertension, diabetes and high cholesterol, account for 70% of deaths globally and 75% of healthcare costs in the U.S.

Yet fewer than half of patients take their treatments as prescribed. Poor adherence leads to avoidable complications, higher costs to the healthcare systems, and ineffective therapies.

Elfie tackles this issue head-on by helping users build long-term habits through simple, validated actions: checking blood pressure, logging medication intake, and watching a short piece of educational content. Beyond tracking and monitoring, Elfie is designed to keep users engaged through a strong gamification component, where users earn rewards for staying committed to their health goals, from health discounts to vouchers.

The impact is clear. Elfie has already improved adherence by over 30% for key pharmaceutical partners and is currently in the process of publishing global Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) and Real-World Evidence reports (RWEs) that offer clear clinical evidence of Elfie’s positive effect on health outcomes.

A unique model: free for users, powered by enterprise

Elfie operates on a B2B2C model that creates alignment across all stakeholders in the healthcare ecosystem. The app is entirely free for patients, who use it to track key health metrics such as blood pressure and glucose levels, receive personalized coaching, and earn real-world rewards for staying on track.

On the enterprise side, Elfie partners with pharmaceutical companies and insurers who pay for access to structured, anonymized health data and engagement tools that drive better outcomes.

This approach also improves patient retention and long-term adherence, addressing one of the industry’s biggest challenges and benefits all stakeholders:

• Patients benefit from better health outcomes and long-term support without additional cost;
• Pharma gains real-time anonymized data to better evaluate drug efficacy by tracking medication adherence and health data such as blood pressure and glucose levels;
• Insurers reduce the frequency of claims and loss ratios by encouraging preventive care and medication compliance and can further build on Elfie’s clinically validated platform to deliver their own scalable services;
• What makes this model particularly compelling for insurers is Elfie’s ability to engage a broader population, with 40% of users being healthy and 60% having chronic conditions, within a single app. This creates a long-term engagement funnel unmatched by traditional chronic care tools. Retention is driven not only by condition tracking but by the free, high-usage wellness tools offered in the app, including sleep, nutrition, weight management, and fitness tracking
• Employers may negotiate reduced premiums for their workforce due to improved employee health and reduced absenteeism.

Additionally, Elfie doesn’t rely on self-reported data alone. Through integrations with pharmacies, wearables, and insurer systems, the platform collects validated, high-quality health data. This foundation enables advanced analytics and real-time visibility into adherence trends, supporting both clinical and commercial use cases.

Why we’re backing Elfie

Elfie operates at the intersection of digital therapeutics, real-world evidence, and behavior-led preventive care. It combines strong user engagement with structured, enterprise-ready data, creating measurable ROI for both patients and system partners.

We’re excited to have ledElfie’s $12 million Series A alongside LifeX Ventures, with participation from existing investors Integra Partners, FEBE Ventures, and Hustle Fund.

We’ve been particularly impressed by the founding team, including Ofir Ejnes, CEO, who is a repeat entrepreneur with deep product and execution experience in Southeast Asia, and Jean-François Legourd, COO, who brings operational discipline from his background in consulting and VC.

We also view the company’s medical credibility as a key differentiator, with Professor Otavio Berwanger, Executive Director of the George Institute for Global Health UK and Chair in Clinical Trials at Imperial College London, heading Elfie’s medical board.

Despite raising less than $5 million prior to this round, the team has built a global platform, secured contracts with pharma leaders, and achieved regulatory approval in multiple jurisdictions.

At White Star Capital, we invest in companies reshaping industries at scale. Elfie is doing exactly that, by transforming how chronic care is delivered, measured, and monetized. We’re excited to support the team in this next chapter.