Dr. Mahiben Maruthappu | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1988 (age 36–37) London, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Other names | Ben |
| Education | University of Cambridge University of Oxford Harvard University |
| Occupation(s) | Physician, entrepreneur, researcher |
| Years active | 2011 to present |
| Known for | Founder, Cera, NHS Innovation Accelerator, academic research |
| Awards |
|
| Medical career | |
| Institutions | Imperial College London and UCL (research and medical practice) National Health Service (UK), Cera, UKMSA |
| Sub-specialties | Innovation, technology & research in healthcare |
| Research | Health economics, public health |
Mahiben Maruthappu MBE (born 1988, also known as Ben Maruthappu) is a British physician, entrepreneur, academic researcher, health policy specialist and the founder and Chief Executive of, Cera, the UK's largest HealthTech company, [1] [2] [3] and a HealthTech Unicorn. [4] [1] [5] Cera is focused on taking care out of hospitals and into patients' own homes, using technology to improve health outcomes, [6] [7] [8] with $500 million in annualised revenues as of 2025. [9]
Prior to Cera, Maruthappu co-founded the National Health Service (NHS) Innovation Accelerator (NIA), a program that accelerates the adoption of new healthcare technologies, and served as NHS England's Innovation Adviser. He was also the founder and first President of the United Kingdom Medical Students' Association (UKMSA). [10] He has contributed to more than 100 academic papers in peer-reviewed journals. [11] [12]
Maruthappu represented the UK at the EY World Entrepreneur of the Year 2025, was overall winner of EY's UK Entrepreneur of the Year 2024, and overall winner of Great British Entrepreneur of the Year 2023. In 2020, he was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the Queen's New Year Honours for services to Health and Social Care technology. [13] He has been listed as one of WIRED's 10 Innovators in Healthcare, and was named in the 2015 Forbes' 30 under 30 list. [14] [15] [16]
In 2025, Maruthappu appeared in the Sunday Times list of the 40 Richest People Under 40, with a net worth of £123 million. [17] [18] [19] [20]
Maruthappu was born in London in 1988. He studied preclinical medicine at Selwyn College, Cambridge, where he graduated with a triple first class, [21] and as a student ran several charities, including CONTACT and Medic to Medic. There, he became the first undergraduate invited to lecture medical students. He then studied clinical medicine at Green Templeton College, Oxford and in his fifth year founded the United Kingdom Medical Students' Association (UKMSA), which provided free educational resources to over 40,000 students. [22] He was also a Kennedy Scholar in Global Health at Harvard University, where he conducted research at Harvard's Center for Surgery and Public Health. [23] [24]
Maruthappu began his career as a physician at Ealing Hospital in 2013. He later practised at Chelsea & Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and then trained in Public Health. [25] In 2014, he was appointed scholar at the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, where he focused on the use of structured feedback in surgery. [21]
In 2014, Maruthappu became the first appointed Senior Fellow to the Chief Executive Officer of NHS England, Simon Stevens. [26] [27]
Whilst at the National Health Service, Maruthappu advised on innovation, technology and prevention, and in 2015, he co-founded the NHS Innovation Accelerator (NIA), a programme aimed at spreading technologies across the health service, that also led to the development of the first NHS Innovation Tariff, a national reimbursement mechanism for medical technologies and digital health products. [28] [29] [30]
He co-founded the NHS's £450 million Workplace Wellness Programme and the Diabetes Prevention Programme (DPP) which, as of 2017, had been rolled out to half of the population in England. [31] He led NHS England's contribution to the Government's Childhood Obesity Plan and originated the NHS Sugar Tax, which preceded the UK Government's Soft Drinks Industry Levy and so-called Sugar Tax. [32]
After his mother fell and fractured part of her back, Maruthappu and his sister faced difficulties in arranging required home care. [33] In 2016, he founded Cera. [34] In its early days, the company started out as an on-demand digital platform to match people seeking in-home assistance with professional carers, allowing families to keep updated on a patient's progress. [35] [36]
As of 2025, Cera has become the UK's largest and fastest-growing HealthTech company, and a HealthTech unicorn. [4] [1] [5] It is also one of Europe's fastest-growing businesses, with c. $500 million in annualised revenues. [6] [7] The first company in 15 years to rank in the Top 10 of the Deloitte Fast 50 for three consecutive years, Cera has also repeatedly been ranked as the UK's Top HealthTech company. [8] [37] [38] [39]
Cera employs 10,000 carers and nurses, delivering approximately 2.5 million healthcare visits a month – a visit every second on average – direct to patients' homes: a volume equivalent to all NHS A&E departments nationwide. [40] [41] The company covers a population of 30 million people, on behalf of governments, insurers and the NHS. [42]
Cera has developed AI tools which reduce patient falls by 20% and hospitalisations by up to 70%. [43] [44] Third-party analyses show Cera's model saves the UK Government and NHS £1 million a day. Both the UK Minister for Care and the National Director of Transformation at NHS England have recognised Cera as an example of the transformation needed in healthcare. [45] [46] [47]
Maruthappu has been acknowledged for his role in reducing NHS costs and building a more sustainable future for health and social care, including by The Times [48] and Sunday Times, [49] The Telegraph, [50] City AM [51] and Forbes. [5]
Maruthappu was formerly a Board Member of NHS North West London Integrated Care Board (covering a population of over 2 million people) and of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, one of the UK's largest NHS Trusts, with £1.2 billion turnover. [52] [53] He was also formerly a Board Member for Skills for Care, the national body for the UK's 1.5 million care workforce– a workforce Maruthappu has helped to grow, attracting 1 million new carer and nurse applicants to Cera in 2 years. [53] He was also a Founding Board Member of Digital Health London. [54]
Maruthappu is a current member of the advisory board for HealthTechDigital. [55] [56]
Maruthappu is a Senior Advisor to Bain & Company, and has advised a range of organisations, from startups to multilaterals, including the Swiss government, the Telegraph and the WHO. He is Chairman of the UK Medical Students' Association (UKMSA) and has authored three medical books. [57] He writes for The Times, [58] The Guardian and Forbes, and has lectured undergraduate students at Cambridge University since the age of 20. [59] [60] [61]
Maruthappu's research focuses on public health, innovation and health economics and he has contributed to more than 100 academic papers in peer-reviewed journals. [11] [70]
He also partook in the 2018 study demonstrating that health & social care funding constraints in England were linked to 120,000 excess deaths; a so called 'mortality gap'. [71] [72] The study called for over £20 billion of additional investment into the health and care system. [73] [74] [ better source needed ]