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“One of our company values is ‘Find a way’. Sefa, as a partner, really embodies that. The team are creative, visionary and persistent. I think that combination is very powerful. Australia's impact investing landscape is still it in its early days. Sefa is helping show high-impact social enterprises like us to find ways to tap into that market very successfully.”
Technology has increased the speed of scientific research and discovery. But without the right systems to make sense of it all, scientists, practitioners and organisations struggle to put insights into action.
Covidence, a purpose-driven technology platform, uses AI to streamline literature and systematic reviews, helping bring together research from around the world and turn it into evidence-based insights faster.
“Our mission is to change how the world creates and uses trustworthy knowledge,” says Julian Elliott, Covidence Co-Founder and CEO. “We help create accessible, approachable and accurate scientific knowledge that’s always up to date.”
So far, the platform has saved users 12 million hours of work and had a significant impact in the health sector. It has helped create ‘living evidence’ for stroke care guidelines, a crucial tool that puts the latest evidence-based guidance in the hands of clinicians – helping save the lives of thousands of Australians impacted by stroke.
In the world where trustworthy knowledge is more important than ever, Covidence makes unbiased, factual information more accessible than ever.
“We know there are a lot of people still doing things the old way. That means they're cutting corners, using biased processes. They do a quick literature search or scan through websites. This gives them a very biased view because studies that are exciting get noticed and are talked about more. But if you do the work, you often find the story is quite different,” says Julian.
“Covidence is a reliable source that helps different people in different groups create evidence that is truly trustworthy, and an accurate reflection of the latest science.”
Climate change is one example. Many researchers are using the platform to help develop new evidence to determine how to combat its impact. Some are looking into how to create resilient community forestry programs. Others are looking at how to promote the adoption of climate change resistant crops to maintain and boost access to food and income in the world’s poorest areas.
Having access to the latest research evidence in patient care can mean the difference between life and death for the 15 million people living with stroke. Before Covidence, the Stroke Foundation could only update the Australian and New Zealand ‘Clinical Guidelines for Stroke Management’ guides every 5-7 years. Streamlining the process, Covidence has facilitated and supported the reduction in the time between updates to 3 months; creating the world’s first living evidence guidelines.
Today, more than 300,000 researchers and students and more than 300 organisations are using the Covidence platform to save time and focus on creating knowledge that will shape our society. Since its inception, Covidence has facilitated more than 300,000 individual reviews.
The platform offers infinite potential for impact and growth. When trustworthy information is so critical, the use of gold standards in all research disciplines is skyrocketing. 2.5 million scientific publications were published in 2000, and by 2013 this had tripled highlighting the exponential growth in evidence creation. Systematic reviews, which the Covidence platform supports, are growing by 18% annually, signaling Covidence’s need to accelerate its growth in the ever-expanding market to continue closing the information gap.
With a strong financial baseline, expert management team and Board, Covidence has created an environment ripe for growth and impact. But it has now outgrown start-up philanthropic funding, and accessing bridging loan facilities is hard for the organisation to plan for.
At Sefa, we recognise the platform’s incredible potential to have a significant ripple effect across all areas of life – from social science and climate change to health guidelines and patient treatments.
That’s why we have invested $1million to support Covidence’s journey – and add a unique organisation to the range of impact we rally behind. Our first growth capital investment is part of a larger, $5million deal to help the organisation build out its platform, meet customer priorities, grow its team and remain a not-for-profit organisation.
“This investment has been transformative, helping us push into new frontiers. Part of that is about investing more in machine learning systems. But it’s also about scaling as an organisation. We want to make a truly significant global impact now. And the Sefa facility significantly helps us on that journey,” explains Julian.
We are very proud to continue to stretch our debt mandate into new territories and expand our investment appetite to organisations in their growth phase.
