What's next in healthtech?

The healthcare sector has faced unprecedented challenges during the last year. But where there are challenges, entrepreneurs find solutions. Fueled by new technologies or new business models, startups have been paving the way for the future of healthcare - now more than ever.

Investor interest in healthtech has also been booming. Early last year, KRY secured one of the largest deals of the year and raised €140m to expand its footprint. Sifted also noted a $750m increase from 2019 to 2020 in European healthtech investments. In total, Swedish healthtech startups raised a combined €396m during 2020 according to Dealroom, a record number.

Promoting health instead of cure

The future of health is not only patient-centered, the idea is to keep you from becoming a patient in the first place. Instead of curing, it's about staying healthy as much as possible. Preventive, predictive, and personalized care are the new norm, all while you take an active role in your own health.

After the first wave of healthtech, where early adopters discovered the first health apps and lifestyle activity trackers, we are in the middle of the second wave that is aiming to digitize the outdated processes and experiences in the health care system through telemedicine, machine learning and AI. But we are also seeing signs of the third wave on the horizon, that has the potential to revolutionize the ways we interact with our bodies (as recently demonstrated by Elon Musk's Neuralink) or develop new cures with computer-aided drug-design.

We believe that 2021 is going to be a great year for healthtech and to demonstrate that, we want to highlight 21 teams that you should keep an eye on.

Mental health

Mindler

Mindler enables you to talk with a certified psychologist through video call or chat. Early last year Mindler raised an €8 million Series A round, co-led by Ventech and Shibsted Growth, and has since expanded its services to France and The Netherlands.

Mindmore

Sting Alumni Mindmore digitizes cognitive tests and offers their SaaS platform to clinics to make cognitive status available for all patient groups that need it while streamlining testing procedures for healthcare staff.

Diagnostics

Capitainer

The blood collection device for microsampling from Capitainer enables easy and accurate sampling by non-healthcare professionals. The company announced in January that it has raised another SEK31 million to ramp up production capacity for Covid-19 antibody testing.

Profundus Imaging

At least 1 billion individuals globally have a vision impairment that could have been prevented. Profundus Imaging is a producer of an innovative camera used for earlier diagnosis of retina-related diseases. The company raised SEK 8.4 million in January 2021 from Almi Invest among others.

Amferia

Located in Gothenburg, Amferia develops anti-infective medical devices that can prevent bacterial infections including those caused by antibiotic resistant bacteria. In January 2020 the company was able to secure SEK 6.2 million and aims to bring the product to the market within the next 3 years.

AlgoDx

Swedish startup AlgoDx focuses on supporting disease detection and prediction with machine learning algorithms. The first application is able to predict sepsis in hospitalized patients. AlgoDx has closed a €600K seed round early last year.

Symbiome

Symbiome develops a medical toolkit that customers can use for testing their intestinal flora and find out how their gut bacteria can affect their well-being. Users can take the test at home and get their results in about 6 weeks.

Jaisy Health

Jaisy, a Sting Incubate alumni, has developed a low cost solution for non-invasive jaundice detection and measurement in infants. The company has developed an optical mobile device that connects to any smartphone which measures the bilirubin level and predicts the risk of jaundice.

Chronic disease

Paindrainer

PainDrainer is a digital pain coach who, with the help of artificial intelligence, learns how your activities affect your pain. The app guides you and gives individual advice to help you plan your day and control your pain level.

Migränhjälpen

1.4 million Swedes suffer from migraines. Migränhjälpen, founded in 2019, is working for launching a digital service available for users looking to get treated for migraines. The company announced a capital raise of SEK 6.2 million in March 2020.

Alex Health

Alex is preventing people from getting chronically ill in the first place. 40% of all premature deaths could be prevented by changing behavior.
Combining technology with psychology and a consumer-first user experience, Alex treats unhealthy habits

Digital Diabetes Analytics

People living with diabetes currently spend billions on continuous glucose measurement, but are currently drowning in their data. Digital Diabetes Analytics provides an automated solution which analyses the data and generates systematic interpretations to transform diabetes care.

Itchy

Making digital treatment plans for Psoriasis patients, Itchy's ambition is to make the daily life easier for people with Psoriasis and Atopic eczema. It combines an app with a journal and personalised treatment plans with skin care products.

Health Integrator

Sting Alumni Health Integrator strengthens the individual's ability to achieve long-term changes in living habits, in order to prevent common diseases, such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease. The health platform provides access to a number of activities and health services.

Female Health

Tilly

Tilly, a sting company, is creating a one-stop-shop for personalised fertility support enabling proactive testning, easier ways to find relevant information and mental support.

Momentus

Momentus is an app that gives a new mother all the knowledge she needs about her own body and health after giving birth. The team was accepted into the Sting Incubate program in early 2021.

Grace Health

Grace is solving the current problem of accessibility and discretion by delivering a solution to the 1.9 billion women in emerging markets who lack access to women’s health services and information. It lets women track and understand their reproductive health.

Digital Health

Care To Translate

Sting Alumni Care to Translate offers medically correct communication with translations verified by native speakers to overcome language barriers in healthcare. They are active in over 200 countries and their app has more than 241.000 users.

Sensivo

Sensivo helps clinical researchers to store and manage research data in a flexible, collaborative and secure way. It provides a GDPR compliant, cloud-based spreadsheet for modern clinical research and sensitive personal data management.

Skinfo

Skinfo translates ingredients in cosmetic and skincare products with scientific facts to help more people choose, avoid or discover products based on their ingredients. The Sting Alumni simplifies complex data to increase consumers' knowledge and understanding.

Kind

Malmö-based Kind is a secure communication platform tailored for healthcare providers and patients. It allows healthcare providers to communicate with patients, share care plans and documents. Since its Seed round in 2019, Kind has now started expanding beyond Sweden.

Need help to grow or scale your healthtech startup?

Through our new initiative, Sting Health Action, we support startups that, like us, believe that the future of health must be characterized by Personalization, Prediction, Prevention and Participation.

This will be a leading star when we now look for innovative and disruptive companies to join us. We’re especially interested in startups with ground-breaking technologies and scalable solutions within the following areas:

• Chronic Disease
• Diagnostics
• Female Health
• Mental Health
• Pandemic Health Action

Thanks to extensive experience from scaling 300+ startups, we can give you access to unparalleled skills and knowledge and help increase your chances of success many times over.

Learn more about our support for Healthtech startups