Splose raises $1m, targets a rush of NDIS providers joining its allied health platform

Allied-health industry management platform Splose has raised $1 million in fresh capital to fund an expected explosion in users by the end of 2023, driven largely by NDIS providers grappling with the challenges of dealing with the government-funded scheme.

Splose founder Nick Sanderson tells Business News Australia that the company is targeting 10,000 users a month over the next 18 months, from a base of about 1,500 at the end of FY22. He describes the ambitious growth plan as a relatively ‘conservative’ target considering the depth of the industry in Australia.

“There are hundreds of thousands of allied healthcare providers, including those who work within NDIS, so the 10,000 target is a small portion of the potential market in Australia,” Sanderson says.

“In terms of getting there in 18 months’ time, that might sound ambitious, but based on the current traction we think it’s possible.”

Splose was initially founded by Sanderson as a website developer for the health sector, but he transitioned the business in 2018 to create the ‘intuitive software’ that automates practice management for the healthcare industry.

The company has experience significant growth over the past year, driven largely by its dedicated support for NDIS providers joining the platform.

“I have had thousands of conversations with providers who have shared their frustrations with the management systems available for the past 10 years,” Sanderson says.

“At the end of the day, they just want to provide better care to people because that’s the core of what they want to do, but unfortunately admin and working within the NDIS has certain obligations that take up a lot of their time.

“The fact that we’re saving clients at least seven to 10 hours a week in admin allows them to provide their patients with better support.”

Adelaide-based Splose says its market share quadrupled in the past year following a $100,000 grant from the South Australian Government, helping the company reach a milestone of 1,500 monthly users by the end of FY22. These funds came on the heels of an original $128,000 raised in 2020 to complete the commercialisation of the platform.

“For a long time, we were grinding out, listening to customers and building the platform, so that grant was really helpful in bridging the gap between the original investment and proving out the product,” says Sanderson.

While the feedback shows the allied health sector has a ‘real problem that needs solving’, Sanderson says it has been tough convincing health practitioners there is a better way.

“It takes a long time to get people to switch to new practice management software from the systems they have been using for 10 years,” he says.

“But getting providers to join Splose now is starting to happen organically. We spend very little on marketing because providers are sharing the benefits among themselves.

“Participants often spend months waiting to get approved into the NDIS. When participants get approved, we help providers streamline the process with automated online service agreement templates and case management tools to accurately allocate and maximise NDIS funding over the plan.

“Improving provider cash flow is imperative to retain staff and support participants, so developing batch invoicing capabilities and automating bulk payment requests to the NDIS are some of our critical features.”

Sanderson says the Splose platform's core mission is to assist allied health providers get paid more efficiently.

“We’ve got integrations directly with the NDIS so they can get paid quicker and we have a two-way integration with Xero which other systems don’t have, making reconciling accounts a lot easier.”

Splose currently has a team of 10 based at the Stone & Chalk innovation hub at Lot Fourteen in Adelaide’s CBD.