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Why France's start-up champion has struggled abroad

Its appointment booking software is everywhere in France, but Doctolib has struggled to make a dent elsewhere.

Already doing well by the time the pandemic hit, Doctolib benefited from the sudden boom in telemedicine, and partnering with the French government to facilitate the Covid-19 vaccine rollout made the company a household name in France. Dr Carol von Wildhagen, a medical doctor and health venture partner at Munich-based Caesar VC who previously led the German arm of Platform24, a Scandinavian telemedicine provider, says existing closed systems in practices are also a major barrier to entry. “I think home field advantage always plays a big role in the European start-up scene”, says Liam Boogar-Azoulay, who founded France’s bilingual startup blog, Rude Baguette, in 2011, and is now a co-founder at Waypoint AI.

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