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VCs are raising billions for healthcare-focused funds and exciting new companies are pouring into the space! We tell you which health tech startups to look out for and why.
Healthcare venture capital funds raised nearly $22 billion in the US in 2022, in one of the largest fundraising years on record. While investment in the US has slowed, European digital health startups raised over €4.8b last year and funding remains stable.
From virtual surgery rooms to perfect vision glasses to biotech startups accelerating drug discovery, healthcare companies are using AI, machine learning, and more cutting-edge tech to make healthcare more accessible, affordable, and efficient.
Plus, more than 12% of new startups and 6% of new unicorns in 2022 were health tech companies. Health tech pioneers are driving the industry’s transition from physical to digital, reactive to preventative, fee-for-service to value-based care.
At Founders Forum Group’s global flagship forums, we bring together health and biotech trailblazers and unicorn founders – like Alan’s Charles Gorintin, Babylon’s Ali Parsa, Christian Angermayer, and Medable’s Michelle Longmire – to build connections and spark disruptive new ideas.
Founders Factory supports top health tech startups via funding, specialist support, and programmes like the Psychedelic Therapy accelerator, which invests in startups focussed on redefining mental health treatment.
firstminute capital backs seed stage health tech startups and has $350m AUM; the Centre for Entrepreneurs six-month NEF+ Programme gives early-stage health tech founders the education, support, and network to build their businesses; and London Tech Week’s Health Tech Summit brings the global health tech community together to drive meaningful conversations.
Who will be the next billion dollar health tech company? Here’s 25 health tech companies from the FF community we’re excited to tell you about, which we’ve grouped into four categories:
- BioTech & Drug Discovery
- FemTech & Healthcare Apps
- Telemedicine & Digital Health
- VR, AI, and More Cool Tech
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BioTech & Drug Discovery
Baseimmune
Founder/s: Ariane Gomes, Joshua Blight, Phillip Kemlo
Country: UK
Stage: Seed
Total funding raised: £4.2m
Why we’re excited: Future-proof vaccines!
Existing vaccines struggle to protect us against new disease variants. Baseimmune is using its proprietary, deep learning AI platform to predict future disease mutations and generate new vaccines that can.
Leading innovation in biotech specifically, Baseimmune has three vaccines in preclinical trials – for African swine fever, coronavirus, and malaria – and is raising its Series A funding round this year. Plus, its co-founder, Ariane Gomes, was named one of our Rising Stars in 2022.
MiRXES
Founder/s: Zhou Lihan, Zou Ruiyang
Country: Singapore
Stage: Series C
Total funding raised: $168m
Why we’re excited: Early detection tests for cancer.
One of Singapore’s fastest-growing health tech companies, MiRXES develops early detection tests for cancer. Its flagship product, GASTROClear, is the world’s first molecular blood test for early detection of gastric cancer, able to detect around 90% of patients with Stage I and II cancers.
MiRXES is now developing early detection tests for multiple types of cancer – including breast, lunch, and ovarian cancer – and has operations across Singapore, the US, Japan, and China. The mission: to save and improve lives through early, personalised diagnoses.
Owkin
Founder/s: Gilles Wainrib, Thomas Clozel
Country: USA
Stage: Series B
Total funding raised: $304.1m
Why we’re excited: A full stack AI biotech!
Owkin uses AI and machine learning to find the right treatment for every patient. Owkin’s pioneering approach involves analysing disease patterns and complex biological interactions to categorise patients into specific subgroups. Medical and biopharma firms can unlock insights from the patient data to discover and develop new and better drugs at scale.
Owkin’s precision medicine platform is being used to discover and develop better treatments in eight cancer types. The unicorn health tech startup has raised over $300m to date, including a $180m investment from Sanofi in 2021 and $89m from Bristol Myers Squibb in 2022.
Peptone
Founder/s: Kamil Tamiola
Country: UK & Switzerland
Stage: Series A
Total funding raised: $42.4m
Why we’re excited: Developing therapeutics against difficult to drug intrinsically disordered proteins.
Backed by Bessemer Venture Partners, F-Prime Capital, Hoxton Ventures, Walden Catalyst, Novartis, and Founders Factory, Peptone has built a unique drug discovery platform that leverages generative protein AI and advanced biophysical experiments conducted in their 8000 square foot laboratories in Switzerland.
Proteins are fundamental in the creation of modern medicines. Peptone’s AI system is accelerating research into intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs), which play a significant role in health and disease, to explore the potential for new therapeutics. Peptone raised $40m in Series A funding in June 2022. Its algorithmic engine runs on a supercomputer, built with NVIDIA and based in Iceland, which is 100% powered by geothermal and hydroelectric renewable energy.
Qunomedical
Founder/s: Gero Graf, Sophie Chung
Country: Germany
Stage: Series A
Total funding raised: $12.3m
Why we’re excited: Human-centric healthcare.
Like a Tripadvisor for healthcare, Qunomedical helps people find doctors abroad, providing free assessments, 24/7 patient support, and real patient reviews. Still, many doctors globally spend too much of their time on administrative tasks and away from their patients.
Last year, Qunomedical raised €10m in its Series A funding round and launched a new B2B software product, Qunosuite, to enable healthcare providers to digitally manage their patient relationships, helping to maximise human contact with doctors where it matters and use tech where it doesn’t.
Relation Therapeutics
Founder/s: Benjamin Swerner, Charles Roberts, Jake Taylor-King
Country: UK
Stage: Seed
Total funding raised: $28m
Why we’re excited: Bringing machine learning to the lab.
Relation Therapeutics is a biotechnology company focussed on leveraging computational and experimental techniques to understand biology better. Central to Relation’s approach is its integrated wet-lab, dry-lab platform which leverages human genetics, single-cell profiling and machine learning to generate new insights with real translational validity.
The company raised $25m in Seed financing from leading investors such as DCVC, Magnetic, Khosla Ventures, and key angels including Peer Schatz (former CEO, QIAGEN) and Mark Stevenson (former COO, ThermoFisher). Relation has worked with a number of partners including The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Montreal Institute for Learning Algorithms.
FemTech & Healthcare Apps
Hertility Health
Founder/s: Deirdre O’Neill, Helen O’Neill, Natalie Getreu
Country: UK
Stage: Seed
Total funding raised: £4.2m
Why we’re excited: A female-first approach.
Hertility Health’s thesis is simple: healthcare systems weren’t designed for women. It can take up to eight years to diagnose a fertility disorder and 60% of women suffer hormone and gynae issues.
Founded by women for women, Hertility Health provides advanced, at-home hormone and fertility testing for women, helping reduce the time to diagnosis for reproductive health, fertility, and menopause-related issues from years to days. Co-Founder, Helen O’Neill, presented as one of our Rising Stars at FF London in 2021!
Mae
Founder/s: Maya Hardigan
Country: USA
Stage: Seed
Total funding raised: $2.6m
Why we’re excited: Improving pregnancy outcomes for Black women.
Black women in the US are three times more likely to experience a pregnancy-related death than white women and twice as likely to experience a pregnancy-related complication.
Backed by Founders Factory, Maya Hardigan launched digital-first health platform, Mae, after 10+ years at Pfizer, to provide pregnancy and postpartum support tailored to Black women. Working in partnership with healthcare payers, Mae connects Black expectant mothers with critical digital and community-based resources to drive positive pregnancy outcomes across the US.
MYNDUP
Founder/s: Joel Gujral
Country: UK
Stage: Series A
Total funding raised: £5m
Why we’re excited: Tackling mental health in the workplace.
Joel Gujral launched MYNDUP after struggling to find counselling support at work. Born out of the Centre for Entrepreneurs NEF+ Programme, Myndup provides virtual mental health sessions digitally to employees.
Joel’s goal is to stop the one-size-fits-all approach to mental health, offering live video sessions with leading practitioners, which cover therapy, counselling, mindfulness, life coaching, career coaching, and meditation. MYNDUP is servicing more than 50,000 employees in over 50 countries and raised £4.4m in Series A funding in November 2022.
Sanno
Founder/s: Ariadna Maso
Country: UK
Stage: Pre-Seed
Total funding raised: Undisclosed
Why we’re excited: Transforming digestive health.
40% of the world’s population suffer from chronic gut conditions, but treatment mostly relies on trial and error. After suffering with her own chronic gut issues, Ariadna Maso founded Sanno, a patient care platform for digestive health, to accelerate clinical research in the space.
Sanno runs evidence-based assessments – focusing on gastrointestinal disorders as well as weight management and women’s health – and provides fast access to datasets for research, and guidance for patient treatment and monitoring. Sanno is backed by Founders Factory and Johnson & Johnson and is used by clinicians and healthcare organisations in the UK, Europe and US.
Vinehealth
Founder/s: Georgina Kirby, Rayna Patel
Country: UK
Stage: Seed
Total funding raised: $8.5m
Why we’re excited: Transforming life with cancer through technology.
Vinehealth is an AI-driven platform and app designed to improve quality of life for people living with cancer. Supported by the NHS, Vinehealth’s app allows cancer patients to report and monitor their symptoms, medications, and activity levels.
At the same time, healthcare organisations benefit from access to rich, patient-generated data to improve health service delivery, drug development, and research. Vinehealth raised $5.5m in Seed funding in December 2021 and is looking to raise its Series A this year.
Voda
Founder/s: Jaron Soh, Kris Jack
Country: UK
Stage: Pre-Seed
Total funding raised: Bootstrapped
Why we’re excited: App-based therapy for LGBTQIA+.
Being LGBTQIA+ brings with it unique challenges, which means traditional forms of mental wellbeing are often less relevant. Voda is a mental wellness app for the LGBTQIA+ community, offering guided therapy programmes designed by leading LGBTQIA+ psychotherapists. Jaron Soh and Kris Jack built Voda out of CFE’s NEF+ Programme in 2022 to help members of the LGBTQIA+ community lead more fulfilled lives through affordable, accessible, and intersectional digital therapy.
The founder-duo did everything in-house with just £50k; Jaron designed the app, Kris built it, and the programmes are written by the team’s expert therapist advisors. Voda has proven outcomes – reducing clinical scores of anxiety and depression by 44% and 40% respectively amongst LGBTQIA+ users – and is raising a £500k Seed round this year.
Telemedicine & Digital Health
Avi Medical
Founder/s: Christoph Baumeister, Julian Kley, Vlad Lata
Country: Germany
Stage: Series B
Total funding raised: €88.5m
Why we’re excited: Promoting preventative care.
Vlad Lata’s Avi Medical is a new kind of GP practice, offering free preventative check-ups and in practice and video appointments. The goal is to reshape primary care by providing easy access to doctors, focusing on evidence-based diagnoses, and putting preventative healthcare first.
Avi Medical raised €50m in a Series B funding round, led by Balderton Capital in 2022, and plans to expand from eight to 100 clinics across Germany by 2024.
Cera
Founder/s: Ben Maruthappu, Marek Sacha, Martin Ocenas
Country: UK & Germany
Stage: Series C+
Total funding raised: $407.2m
Why we’re excited: Reinventing UK healthcare.
One of Europe’s fastest-growing health tech startups, Ben Maruthappu’s Cera raised $320m (£263m) in a 50/50 equity and debt financing round in August 2022 and is now expanding its digital-first home healthcare services in the UK, from serving 15,000 to 100,000 at-home NHS patients each day.
In January, Cera delivered 1.5 million at-home healthcare appointments, saving the UK Government £1m per day. The goal is to boost the UK’s care capacity, create new jobs, reduce hospitalisation, and keep people well in their homes with digital-first care.
Doctor Anywhere
Founder/s: Wai Mun Lim
Country: Singapore
Stage: Series C
Total funding raised: $135.6m
Why we’re excited: Transforming healthcare experiences across Southeast Asia.
Growing populations and a lack of physicians across Southeast Asia make quick access to healthcare difficult. Wai Mun Lim’s Doctor Anywhere is solving that problem, providing over 2.5 million users, across six countries in Southeast Asia, with on-demand access to 3,000 GPs and specialist doctors.
Doctor Anywhere works with over 1,000 corporate partners and has raised over $130 million in funding. With Doctor Anywhere, the company claims patients can video-consult with a locally-licensed doctor online and get medication delivered to their doorstep within three hours.
Elephant Healthcare
Founder/s: Connell Locke
Country: UK
Stage: Series A
Total funding raised: £10.3m
Why we’re excited: A mobile-first OS for healthcare.
Backed by firstminute capital, Elephant Healthcare offers a new, mobile-first operating system for healthcare. Headquartered in the UK, with operations across Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia, Elephant’s OS allows users to process payments and insurance claims, and view patient details, faster and more securely.
Elephant Healthcare is used by over 1,000 contracted facilities and over 10 million patients. The platform connects every part of the health system, from community health workers in rural villages to busy hospitals.
Huma
Founder/s: Dan Vahdat
Country: UK
Stage: Series C+
Total funding raised: $250m
Why we’re excited: Powering digital-first healthcare!
One of the more established health tech companies on our list, Huma’s digital health platform combines Software as a Medical Device (SaMD), predictive algorithms, digital biomarkers, and real-world data to advance proactive, predictive care and research. In March 2023, Huma achieved the sector’s first ever Class IIb EU MDR regulatory approval for its disease agnostic, configurable SaMD. Huma is used by more than 3,000 hospitals and clinics and supports a network of over 27 million patients across four continents.
Huma claims its platform can almost double clinical capacity and reduce readmission rates by over 30%. Its technology powers remote patient monitoring systems, companion apps to support patients through treatment, and virtual clinical trials. In January 2023, Huma acquired Alcedis to create a clinical trials division providing digital solutions across the development pipeline.
Hyka
Founder/s: Jason Shaplen, Jeronimo Beccar, Nicholas Nissen
Country: USA
Stage: Pre-Seed
Total funding raised: $2m
Why we’re excited: A centralised patient referral hub for behavioural health.
Hyka is on a mission to bridge the gap between telehealth and health systems and the fragmented world of specialty psychiatry clinics, unlocking a $100b+ market.
Backed by Founders Factory and developed out of Harvard Innovation Labs, Hyka’s B2B platform enables healthcare providers to identify and connect patients with the latest mental health treatments – from brain stimulation to psychedelics – through one-click referrals to specialty psychiatry clinics.
Scan.com
Founder/s: Charlie Bullock, Jasper Nissim, Joe Daniels, Khalid Latief, Oliver Knight
Country: UK
Stage: Seed
Total funding raised: $5m
Why we’re excited: Speeding up medical scans.
NHS patients in the UK can wait for over six weeks for medical imaging scans. Scan.com allows patients and referring healthcare providers to easily book imaging via its online booking system, with referrals, scans, and results completed in as little as one week.
The Scan.com team has already built the UK’s largest marketplace for self-pay MRI, CT, ultrasound, and X-ray scans, and recently launched in the US. Now, the goal is to develop the largest diagnostic imaging platform and make medical imaging accessible to everyone around the world. Scan.com is backed by Founders Factory, KM Capital, Oxford Capital, YZR Capital, Triple Point Ventures, StartUp Health, Plug and Play Ventures, and top angel investors including Tom Blomfield (Monzo), Harry Hurst (Pipe), Lopo Champalimaud (Treatwell), and Evelyn Bourke (ex Bupa CEO).
VR, AI, and More Cool Tech
FundamentalVR
Founder/s: Chris Scattergood, Richard Vincent
Country: UK
Stage: Series B
Total funding raised: $29.6m
Why we’re excited: A revolutionary approach to medical training.
Backed by Founders Factory, FundamentalVR is a virtual reality medical education platform, delivering VR haptic ‘flight simulators’ for surgery.
FundamentalVR raised $20m in a Series B funding round led by EQT Life Sciences and Downing Ventures in August 2022. The platform makes virtual procedures more lifelike through physical sensory feedback to give surgeons a safe, measurable, and repeatable space to refine their skills, and ultimately to improve patient outcomes.
Lindus Health
Founder/s: Meri Beckwith, Michael Young, Nik Haldimann
Country: UK
Stage: Seed
Total funding raised: $5m
Why we’re excited: Making clinical trials faster!
Innovating in healthcare isn’t easy. Clinical trials can take up to 15 years to complete and many biotech and health tech startups end up partnering with expensive research providers who fail to deliver meaningful results.
Backed by firstminute capital, Lindus Health delivers end-to-end clinical trials for healthtech and biotech pioneers, making clinical trials cheaper, faster, more transparent, and more reliable. Since its launch in 2021, Lindus Health has accelerated over 80 clinical trials, delivering them three times faster than traditional research organisations.
Nabla
Founder/s: Alexandre Lebrun, Delphine Groll, Martin Raison
Country: France
Stage: Series A
Total funding raised: $20.6m
Why we’re excited: AI superpowers for healthcare providers!
Doctors spend too much of their time on admin tasks; writing clinical notes and updating patient records. Nabla is an AI assistant for digital doctors, which writes instant clinical notes, automatically updates patient records, and allows doctors to spend more time serving their patients.
Nabla claims it saves 50% of doctors’ admin time, allowing them to see three more patients per day, and spend five minutes more with each patient. The machine learning platform supports clinicians with real-time prompts and visualisations to provide a more personalised patient experience. Nabla has offices in Paris and Boston and has attracted investment from the likes of Xavier Niel, Artemis, and firstminute capital.
Pearl Health
Founder/s: Ankit Patel, Jeff De Flavio, Michael Kopko
Country: USA
Stage: Series B
Total funding raised: $101m
Why we’re excited: Supporting the shift to value-based care.
Pearl Health recently raised $75m in its Series B funding round, led by Andreessen Horowitz’s Growth Fund and Viking Global Investors, with participation from Kevin Ryan’s AlleyCorp, SV Angel’s Growth Fund, and other leading investors.
The US health tech startup uses data science to help primary care providers deliver better, more proactive care, decrease total cost of care across patient panels, and optimise performance in value-based care models. In 2022, more than 800 US primary care providers partnered with Pearl, resulting in 10x year-over-year growth and expanding the company’s reach from 10 to 29 states.
Pixieray
Founder/s: Klaus Melakari, Niko Eiden, Rebecca Xu, Ville Miettinen
Country: Finland
Stage: Series A
Total funding raised: €16.6m
Why we’re excited: Perfect vision is possible!
Need new glasses? Pixieray’s thesis is that perfect vision is possible. While a traditional eyeglass lens is a mechanical and optical compromise, with fixed focal points, Pixieray is developing adaptive eyeglasses, which combine optics, hardware, and software with human vision to boost optical performance.
Pixieray’s pioneering technology constantly adjusts the focal point and ideal correction for glasses, reducing eye strain and improving user comfort. The company’s first product under its IXI brand will improve the vision of people with farsighted eyeglass prescriptions, eventually removing the need for multifocals or to switch glasses. Pixieray’s Seed investors included Maki.vc, First Fellow, Amazon Alexa Fund, firstminute capital, and top angels like David Helgason and Ilkka Paananen. Its Series A investors include byFounders, Heartcore, and Eurazeo
Proximie
Founder/s: Nadine Hachach-Haram
Country: UK
Stage: Series C
Total funding raised: $135m
Why we’re excited: Digitising the world’s operating rooms.
An experienced NHS Consultant Plastic Surgeon, Nadine Hachach-Haram founded Proximie to create a borderless operating room that could extend the reach of a surgeon’s expertise. Today, surgeons working for 500+ healthcare providers across 50+ countries use Proximie to virtually attend operating theatres and guide complex surgeries.
Proximie raised $80m in Series C funding in 2022 and recently launched smart glasses for open surgeries and partnered with EndoQuest to reshape how physicians perform minimally-invasive operations. They work with over 35 medical device companies globally.
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