Scaling knowmalaria to a successful acquisition by Boots
The Situation
I co-founded and led technology for knowmalaria, an online travel health and malaria prevention service, at a point where the business needed a scalable, compliant digital platform to grow beyond a single-clinic model.
The Task
My task was to build and run a technology function that could support rapid growth, keep the service safe and compliant as a regulated health product, and make the business genuinely attractive to a much larger acquirer
The Action / Approach
I built and led the engineering team, took the platform from a manual, clinic-bound service to one supporting online screening, prescribing, and fulfilment at scale, and made sure the underlying data handling and clinical governance met the standard a corporate acquirer would expect to see in due diligence.
The Result
The business was acquired by Boots, one of the UK’s largest healthcare retailers, validating both the commercial model and the technical foundation behind it. It’s one of my clearest examples of taking a founder-led idea to a scale a major corporate was willing to buy
