15 UK-based digital health startups to watch

Digital health is a space of huge growth and innovation, and as a leading broker in this space, we’re always watching this industry carefully. Digital health is everywhere – from hospitals and home to phones in our pockets and smartwatches on our wrists.

In the last year, we’ve seen $8.2bn global investment in the space, and hundreds of new entrants to the market. So we’re doing a round-up of the most exciting companies across the three fastest growing sectors - artificial intelligence, mental health, and femtech.

Artificial intelligence

DeepMind

Headquarters: London, UK
About: Founded in 2010, and bought by Google in 2014, this company is an artificial intelligence (AI) laboratory working on a plethora of projects. They have recently partnered with Moorfields Eye Hospital, using the data from one million eye scans to help detect early signs of eye cancer.
What sets them apart: With the backing of Google, DeepMind can reach powerfully new heights. They’re at the forefront of a number of exciting projects that will change the way we look at healthcare and research, from deep research, control and robotics to neuroscience and the use of generative models.

Lifebit AI

Headquarters: London, UK
About: Lifebit AI has developed AI software for drug development that can speed up the process of life-changing drugs coming to market. The team is accelerating cancer research by transforming data into analysis-ready facts and figures for research and innovation, supporting ongoing development of revolutionary treatments.
What sets them apart: The Lifebit team are open sourcing biomedical data for clinicians, allowing researchers to run analysis on multiple, distributed datasets in-situ, avoiding the movement of highly-sensitive data. Opening up clinical data in this way could change the way drug developers innovate, and what’s better than that?

Kheiron Medical Technologies

Headquarters: London, UK
About: Kheiron uses artificial intelligence to help radiologists detect cancer 13% earlier, through their breakthrough AI breast screening tech called Mia® (Mammography Intelligent Assessment), increasing the chance of survival. They were the first winners of the UK government's Artificial Intelligence in Health and Care Awards and featured on the front page of the New York Times.
What sets them apart: With growing pressures on radiology staff, and staffing shortages worldwide, Kheiron’s AI technology is taking some of the weight from radiologists' shoulders. Cancer is responsible for around 10 million global deaths annually, and Kheron’s tech removes human error from detection, possibly saving millions of lives, and definitely saving thousands of hours.

Vinehealth

Headquarters: London, UK
About: Vinehealth is a digital platform that remotely monitors cancer patients using AI and behavioural science. Via the app, patients are supported throughout treatment, allowing them to easily track and understand symptoms, appointments and medications, while providing rich insights for oncology clinicians. The team at Vinehealth has been shortlisted for the 2023 OBN (UK) Ltd Awards.
What sets them apart: Vinehealth’s holistic approach combining both patient care and clinical data is the company’s secret sauce. During the upheaval of diagnosis and treatment, patients can take some control back while providing healthcare professionals with analytics that can inform patient care and better clinical decision-making.

Skin Analytics

Headquarters: London, UK
About: Skin Analytics uses artificial intelligence in their teledermatology platform to triage skin cancer patients through image capturing to decide the next route of care - such as referal to a specialist. With skin cancer on the rise, and continuing pressures on the NHS, we’re watching Skin Analytics with great interest. The company has a strong partnership with the NHS, and launched the first skin cancer pathway with them in 2020.
What sets them apart: When you have cancer, you want the diagnosis to be correct and fast, and Skin Analytics delivers this. Their AI technology has found 99% of skin cancers to date of publication, and - combined with use of the Skin Analytics teledermatology platform - removed the need for more than 64% of face-to-face two-week-wait appointments for patients with NHS clinicians.

Mental health

MindLabs

Headquarters: London, UK
About: Founded in 2020, just after Covid hit, MindLabs is a mental health platform with on-demand classes to boost wellbeing and track mental health. The app has a holistic focus on mind, body and spirit - with sleep tracking, stress and physical activity monitoring, as well as meditation. And their Instagram feed is stellar to boot.
What sets them apart: By connecting to wearable technology, MindLabs can push personalised recommendations to users - depending on heart rate and stress levels - throughout the day to promote mental wellbeing.

Oxford VR

Headquarters: Oxford, UK
About: Founded in 2016, Oxford VR is a virtual reality software supporting the treatment of mental health issues. The platform offers evidence-based immersive solutions empowering individuals on their wellness journey through interventions rooted in 25 years of research, and over 285 clinical studies from researchers at Oxford University.
What sets them apart: Utilising virtual reality technology, the team has developed a range of tools that support patients via a simulation to try new behaviours in the face of psychological difficulties - such as social engagement.

Limbic Access

Headquarters: London, UK
About: Limbic is an NHS-trusted mental health e-triage and assessment support chatbot using AI as a care pathway for patients and mental health clinicians. The product uses a friendly chatbot to guide patients through referral processes, screens for mental health disorders and prepares patients for the journey ahead, avoiding longform friction and confusion. We think Limbic has a pretty exciting proposition, especially with its 93% accuracy rate in predicting mental health disorders.
What sets them apart: Limbic is a dual use tool, for both patients and clinicians, which makes it stand out from others in the same space. They expertly blend software engineering and machine learning with psychology and neuroscience delivering shorter wait times for those in need.

Thrive

Headquarters: Stratford upon Avon, UK
About: In-house therapy for employees, all on one app. The app prevents, manages and screens for mental health conditions allowing users to seek help before crisis stage. The company is a mental health partner for some big company names, and recently launched in Australia and New Zealand – to date their product has over three million users worldwide.
What sets them apart: Thrive provides employers with regular insights about their entire workforce. These metrics can help to establish a return on investment, but also can help inform internal decision making, support in spotting patterns and further increase wellbeing engagement across teams.

MediMusic

Headquarters: Hull, UK
About: Utilising AI and machine learning, Medimusic creates individualised playlists that act as a tonic to anxiety and depression. Backed by 25,000 academic papers across 40 years, Medimusic dispenses music to reduce heart rate and anxiety by up to 44%, and pain by 29%.
What sets them apart: Medimusic encourages healing through non-invasive, user controlled tools that can be monitored by clinicians and refined based on heart rate. When it's publicly launched, this product could provide support to those suffering a wide range of symptoms, from chronic pain to Alzheimer’s and anxiety reducing the need for excess medication.

Femtech

Fertifa

Headquarters: London, UK
About: The team at Fertifa are making reproductive health accessible to everyone via their employers, which we really rate. And it’s not just us that think their offering is really cool, they partner with big-name brands such as Meta, Monzo, Aviva and Virgin. Plus, in June, they secured a £5 million fund raise.
What sets them apart: The wide range of services that Fertifa offers globally across the reproductive healthcare spectrum is impressive – including diagnosis and treatment, clinical advice, educational support, financing, and ongoing healthcare.

Peanut

Headquarters: London, UK
About: A social networking app designed to connect women who are at a similar stage in life – from fertility, pregnancy and motherhood through to menopause – to share advice.
What sets them apart: Community is key – a lesson we all learned during the pandemic – and Peanut’s one million users is testament to the need to build a female-led community.

Flo

Headquarters: London, UK
About: The number one period and ovulation tracker worldwide, used by over 300 million people. The Flo team consists of 100+ practitioners offering advice on periods, ovulation cycles and pregnancy.
What sets them apart: Periods, ovulation and fertility are personal, and so privacy is key – we’re interested in Flo as it’s become the first tracker of its kind to meet world-class security standards after achieving ISO 27001 certification.

Samphire Neuroscience

Headquarters: London, UK
About: Samphire is the world's first wearable to alleviate menstrual symptoms. The company’s FireBand product uses low current electrical pulses to stimulate the brain using technology based on 30 years of clinical research and 8,000 peer-reviewed research papers. While the FireBand is yet to publicly launch, we’re eagerly awaiting reviews. The Fireband’s electrical pulse stimulations are claimed to restore balance in the brain, alleviating pain and giving mood control, boost energy and regain mental clarity.
What sets them apart: With approximately 8.9 days of total lost productivity per year due to menstruation, this wearable promises to support employers, but more importantly allow those who suffer from discomfort a fresh start.

Jennis

Headquarters: London, UK
About: Jennis is a fitness app based on hormonal health. It’s designed to close the fitness industry gap by focusing on women's fitness regime through menstruation, pregnancy, postnatal and perimenopause.
What sets them apart: The Jennis app maps a user's hormone cycle at any age to offer bespoke fitness advice to support women to understand their bodies at every stage of life.

How we work with medtechs at Superscript

The healthcare industry is digitising, and with that, the risk landscape is transforming. Superscript supports medtech companies that increasingly require bespoke insurance to protect against incidents such as breaches of sensitive healthcare data, errors and omissions in the provision of their technology platforms, and occasionally claims for bodily injury.