The most promising startups 2022 in digital health

The most promising startups 2022 in digital health
6 min read

Hello everyone! Today we will talk about the most interesting startups in the field of digital healthcare over the past year.

I suggest relying on the "Digital Health 150" rating from CB Insights. The compilers annually select 150 (as the name suggests) the most promising companies in 14 categories and publish data about them in the form of a table.

In 2022, the fight was tough – the finalists were selected from 13,000 applicants. which was checked at different criteria: business model, market dynamics, investments, positioning, technological novelty, CB Insights' own data about the applicant company and much more.

What can we say about the startups included in the rating?

In total, since 2017, the participants of the 2022 rating have attracted about 5.6 billion dollars in 378 transactions. The TOP 3 companies in total equity raising for all this time include SWORD Health, Maven Clinic and Viz.ai .

All participants of the rating are now at different stages of investment development, from beginners to "unicorns". At the same time, companies in the early stages occupy about half of the list, while unicorns occupy only 3% of the list (5 companies).

Startups included in the rating are located in 18 countries. Interestingly, this year a quarter of them have headquarters outside the United States - this is the highest figure in the history of the rating. However, in terms of the number of startups per country, the United States is still in the lead (as many as 112 companies).

Изображение с официального сайта https://www.cbinsights.com/research/report/digital-health-startups-redefining-healthcare-2022/

Image from the official website CB insight


Which startups are of the greatest interest?

I carefully looked at all the solutions presented in the rating. Interoperability, home care and monitoring, AR and VR are just a few of what Digital Health 150 participants are working on.

Let's focus on individual categories and those solutions that seemed unusual to me or that I paid more attention to.

One of the most popular segments is "Screening, monitoring and diagnostics" – 29 companies are represented in it, almost a fifth of the rating. Solutions using AI and "smart" devices are popular – here are Eko, smart stethoscopes for diagnosing heart diseases (USA), and Podimetrics, smart mats for early diagnosis of diabetic foot syndrome (USA), and Skin Analytics, an application for detecting skin cancer by photos of moles (UK), and Alio Medical, a wearable device for monitoring the condition of dialysis patients (USA), and many others.

Фото умного коврика Podimetrics -  https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/health-tech/podimetrics-snags-45m-prevent-diabetic-foot-amputations-temperature-detecting-mat

Photo of Podimetrics smart mat 


Photo of Podimetrics smart mat - https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/health-tech/podimetrics-snags-45m-prevent-diabetic-foot-amputations-temperature-detecting-mat
The next most popular niches were "Compatibility, data and Analytics" (12% of the rating), "Virtual Care" (11%) and "Customer Interaction" (11%). In the "Virtual Care" category, I would like to mention Brave Health, which sells hospitals access to a psychological telemedicine platform (USA), and Nuvo Group, which offers the first FDA-approved remote monitoring system for pregnant women (Israel). In the category "Interaction with patients", attention is attracted by Healthee, an artificial intelligence–based platform that advises on issues related to VHI and insurance coverage - and all this "in just 27 seconds" (USA).

Фото устройства от Nuvo Group, изображение взято с сайта https://www.usine-digitale.fr/article/la-start-up-nuvo-developpe-invu-une-ceinture-connectee-pour-surveiller-les-grossesses-a-risque.N926589

Photo of the device from Nuvo Group, the image is taken from the website 


In the "Hybrid Care" category, attention was drawn to Maven, a platform that combines a network of clinics and telemedicine capabilities to help pregnant women and families with children (USA), as well as Tia, a women's healthcare startup that combines a network of clinics, a doctor appointment service and an AI-based chatbot that helps find the answer to questions about women's health (USA).

Процесс бронирования в сервисе Tia, изображение взято с сайта https://uncoverla.com/2021/05/03/tia-modern-womens-healthcare-clinic-opens-la-silver-lake/

The booking process in the Tia service, the image is taken from the website 


The sphere of "Maintaining health and well–being" has demonstrated a number of interesting solutions, including SWORD Health, a service for physiotherapy and rehabilitation, which includes a number of wearable devices that read physiological indicators that signal pain and help correct movement to eliminate pain (USA), and Cala Health, which currently offer the only prescription noninvasive agent for the treatment of essential tremor – with the help of wearable devices that perform individual stimulation of peripheral nerves (USA).

Фото носимого устройства от Cala Health, изображение взято с сайта https://evercare.ru/news/cala-health-rasshiryaet-funkcional-svoego-ustroystva-dlya-lecheniya-tremora

Photo of a wearable device from Cala Health, the image is taken from the website 

In the category of "Digital Therapy", APPLICEDVR stands out – a platform for the treatment of chronic pain using immersive therapy via VR (USA).

In "Computer Visualization", the following artificial intelligence–based solutions seemed interesting: Digital Diagnostics is the first autonomous AI approved by the FDA for the diagnosis of eye diseases caused by diabetes without the participation of a doctor (USA), Iterative Health is a product for automating the processes of conducting and analyzing the results of endoscopy and colonoscopy (USA) and Viz.ai – service for intelligent coordination of medical care in radiology (USA).

Фото работы сервиса IDx-DR от Digital Diagnostics, изображение взято с сайта https://www.optumventures.com/portfolio/idx/

Photo of the IDx-DR service from Digital Diagnostics, the image is taken from the website

The Healthcare Management niche opened for me Overjet, an FDA–approved AI-based platform for dental care (USA).

Пример работы сервиса Overjet, взято с официального сайта https://www.overjet.ai/product/clinical-intelligence-platform/

An example of the Overjet service, taken from the official website 


In the category of "Clinical Trial Technologies", attention was attracted by Unlearn, which offers a service for accelerating clinical trials using artificial intelligence, digital twins and various statistical methods (USA).

In conclusion

In terms of the amount of capital raised, the TOP 3 are the previously mentioned platforms for intellectual coordination Viz.ai ($322M), a platform combining the capabilities of women's health clinics, Maven ($289M) and the Sword health physiotherapy and rehabilitation platform ($250M).

However, I tried to focus attention on those participants of the rating who stand out from others either with their original idea, or high-quality execution, or an interesting business model.

We look, get inspired, draw conclusions! :)

And let me remind you that I myself am involved in digital healthcare – my company Celsus develops AI-services for radiologists. Of course, we have not yet entered the TOP, which I was talking about here, but we have already achieved some success in Russia. 

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