Cera Care Limited has raised around $320m (£260m) in fresh capital to fund a five-fold expansion in the number of people it treats in their own homes.

The Southwark-based company will use the funds to reach up to 100,000 patients each day. It’s the latest sign of the scale of the UK’s embrace of a technique that Cera says will help free up the equivalent number of beds in 50 NHS hospitals.

Covid-19 dramatically accelerated the shift, but Cera is betting on scope for further development. It currently looks after 15,000 people in the UK and Germany, 600 of whom live in London and now expects the number of people on its rounds in the capital to “greatly increase”. It has carried out over 25 million care appointments in total since it was founded in 2016.

Cera’s carers and nurses collect data on patients’ symptoms during at-home appointments and its artificial intelligence algorithms can trigger earlier health interventions, reducing hospitalisations by over 50% according to company figures. It says the expansion plans will help “digital first” healthcare become as commonplace as app-driven banking and online shopping.

“We’re now in pole position to be able to use our unique technology to expand what we do for patients across the world who are in need of care, while relieving pressures on public services,” said Dr Ben Maruthappu MBE, Cera’s chief executive and co-founder.

KairosHQ was the the lead investor on the capital raising and it was joined by Jane Street Capital, the Vanderbilt University Endowment and Schroders Capital. Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan were placement agents.