The Europe Health Tech 200 is HolonIQ’s annual list of the most promising startups from across digital health, biotech, medtech and other areas where entrepreneurs are driving healthcare innovation.
Europe’s burgeoning and exciting health startup scene is reflected in the region’s 2023 Health Tech 200 list, which includes some of the fastest growing health startups globally. As market conditions have tightened - both globally and across Europe - the 2023 cohort reflects an older selection of more established business models that are demonstrating traction in the market. Following the lofty valuations of the peak pandemic period there has been a correction across funding markets and startups that remain some distance from profitability have toiled. Europe’s mix of research institutions, centers of clinical excellence and established investment communities provides fertile ground for health innovation, even in a tougher market.
Europe’s well-balanced Health Tech startup ecosystem shows the region’s strengths
The 2023 Europe Health Tech 200 is mapped to the HolonIQ Global Healthcare Landscape, an open-source taxonomy for the future of health and wellness. HolonIQ’s system of classification provides an immediate snapshot of the startup activity across the region and allows us to understand the strengths of the health ecosystem. And by viewing the Europe 200 cohort against the taxonomy’s ‘clusters’ we are able to better understand where both capital and innovation is currently focused. Indeed, despite market headwinds there are a number of European health startups that have raised significant sums in the past year, including two global leaders in health robotics; CMR Surgical (A surgical robotics company) and Ganymed Robotics (Develops smart robots for orthopedics). Elsewhere Sweden’s telehealth giant KRY continues to scale at pace with some notable rivals dropping out of the market and businesses advancing news models and technologies such as Peppy (Mobile-based app for women's health problems) and Neko Health (Medical diagnostics company) also thriving.
Exhibit 2
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Research remains the main driver of funding in the market for technology and services command a greater share than ever before
By examining the Europe Health Tech 200 at a sub-sector view we are able to see how the distribution of startups has changed over the past 12 months. Compared to the 2022 cohort there is a significant shift in the number of startups active in Research - reflecting a tough period for biotech and other forms of drug discovery. Elsewhere there are signs that a new wave of diagnostic technologies point-of-care testing solutions are starting to take root in the region, otherwise the market remains relatively stable and well distributed across the different aspects of the Global Healthcare Landscape Taxonomy.
Exhibit 3
UK, Germany and France are the European health tech superpowers with over two thirds of the market
The Europe Health Tech 200 includes startups from across 17 nations but three countries - the United Kingdom, Germany and France - represent 67% of all organizations in the cohort. Switzerland’s centrality to the global pharmaceutical market means it is well represented for a small nation and more recently Netherlands has emerged as a hotbed of health innovation.
Exhibit 4
Direct to consumer business models have struggled in the face of a cost of living crisis and the dissipation of pandemic restrictions
With the Covid-19 pandemic largely in the rear view mirror for European health systems there has been (to an extent) a reversion to the norm in terms of healthcare service models. Businesses focused on providing self-pay services direct to consumers have struggled to maintain the momentum built up during Covid-19 with the return of traditionally available face-to-face services, despite the region facing rising waiting lists and industrial action. The European startup ecosystem remains a B2B-first region and many startups with D2C propositions have pivoted to react to this changing landscape.
Exhibit 5
Startups in the Europe Health Tech 200 are noticeably older than last year’s cohort
The sharp dip in private funding globally is reflected in the Europe Health Tech 200, which features an older and more established range of companies compared to 12 months ago.Over 40% of the 2023 list were founded seven years ago or more. Nevertheless there are also an exciting number of companies formed in the last three years - post-Covid - who have been able to gain real traction in the European market, including: Moka.Care (Mental wellness platform for employees), Mindgram (Developer of a mental healthcare platform). Aiosyn (Developer AI in pathology diagnostics), thymia (Uses AI to assess & track patient's mental health conditions) and Levy Health (Provides precision fertility diagnostics & therapeutic solutions).
Exhibit 6
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