- What Babylon Health has instructed Cushman & Wakefield to look for up to 150,000 sq ft of offices in London
- Why Rapid expansion driven by a round of fundraising this summer
- What next Shortlist of options will be identified with all central London locations being considered
Babylon Health, the ‘virtual GP’ service, has begun a search for new London headquarters to accommodate the company’s rapid expansion in the UK, React News can reveal.
The platform, designed to automate bureaucracy around referrals, has instructed Cushman & Wakefield to look for between 100,000 sq ft and 150,000 sq ft of offices, in a search which is expected to cast a wide net over central London.
The need for new digs is precipitated by the company’s blistering expansion in London. Three years ago, it had only 300 staff. Today, more than 1,000 employees are squeezed into its headquarters at 60 Sloane Avenue in Chelsea, where it occupies less than 50,000 sq ft.
Founded by technology entrepreneur Ali Parsa in 2013, Babylon raised an extra $550m in July to help pursue rapid expansion plans in the UK.
Led by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), which invests on behalf of the Saudi Arabian government, the fundraising valued the company at up to $2bn.
Babylon, which declined to comment on its London HQ plans, has so far restricted its UK operations mainly to London where it now has 50,000 patients using its GP at Hand app.
The London-based company, which has been promoted by Health Secretary Matt Hancock, has also won approval to expand in Birmingham so is expected to soon launch a search for offices in the West Midlands.
The news follows a number of predominantly online companies that React News has recently reported are in talks to expand in London. They include the likes of Netflix; Monzo; Starling Bank; Tide; and Checkout.com.
