Peter Foley, LetsGetChecked

Ireland, the UK, Canada and the US – offers over 30 testing kits spanning sexual health, hormones, testosterone, colon cancer, cholesterol, diabetes, cortisol, kidney, liver, thyroid and fertility.

Users collect the required test material and return it to the LetsGetChecked lab. The company promises test turnaround in two to five days, and if the test result shows up something, there will be a follow-up phone call and a free prescription.

The tests aren’t cheap, though they do include shipping the sample. For sexually transmitted infections, the basic test is €49, rising to €239 for the Full Monty, from gonorrhoea to herpes simplex. GPs can do some of these tests at a lower cost, but surgeries were shuttered for much of 2020 and into 2021, and patients were locked down in their homes too. The result is a recent tally of 2.3 million tests processed by the company.

Foley established operating company Paulus Holdings in February 2015, at the age of 27. In year four of the venture, the company booked a net profit of €500,000 and investors piled on board, with €9.4m in funding raised through 2018. In May 2020, LetsGetChecked announced a €60m funding round as it beefed up to expand in America.

LetsGetChecked is obviously very efficient at what it does, and the large capital injection gives the company scope both to ramp up online by advertising to crowd out competitors, and to ensure that lab capacity is sufficient to keep the quick turnaround promise.

As well as selling to individuals, LetsGetChecked jumped aboard the Covid bandwagon last year with PCR bulk testing aimed at organisations such as enterprises, schools and colleges. The home PCR test for individuals is priced at €69 good value for the hassle it saves.