The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about an incendiary explosion in healthtech startup innovation.
From the billowing rise of telemedicine and delivery services to the burning of barriers between patients and practioners, healthtech startups are quickly adapting, expanding, and pivoting to meet the healthcare needs of millions around the world.
With a flare for disruption, startups in the healthtech space are sparking new waves of incendiary innovation across the globe.
Here, StartupBeat presents Healthtech’s 10 Hottest Startups.
Zipline
Headquarters: San Francisco, California
Founders: Keller Rinaudo and Keenan Wyrobek
Igniting Innovation: Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Zipline has mobilized its medical delivery drones to reach even more people in remote areas, and the company is currently working to bolster national responses for communities in need.
Zipline acts as a lifeline to people who live far away from health centers or for people who don’t want to risk going to a treatment facility where they could be vulnerable to infection.
A Techstars portfolio company, Zipline helps keep medical facilities stocked with the materials they need.
Perimeter Medical Imaging
Headquarters: Toronto, Ontario
Founders: Elizabeth Munro, Andrew Berkeley, and David Rempel
Igniting Innovation: Today, the specimen imaging gurus at Perimeter Medical Imaging just announced that their Optical Tissues Imaging System (OTIS) was just installed at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center as part of the ATLAS AI project that will serve some 400 breast cancer patients.
Having recently been the beneficiary of a $7.4 million grant from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, Perimeter Medical Imaging is using its cutting edge technology to help surgeons identify if a patient still has cancer in real-time while they perform breast-conserving surgery.
bene : studio
Headquarters: Budapest, Hungary and San Francisco, California
Founder: Balint Bene
Igniting Innovation: On Thursday, July 30, 2020, bene : studio will be hosting the UX and Telehealth Rapidconf — a virtual event to connect healthtech professionals from both sides of the Atlantic.
Telehealth was already on the rise before the COVID-19 outbreak, and now it looks like we might reach 1 billion telehealth visits in 2020.
Apart from hosting world-class events and working with the likes of Volkswagen, Vodafone, and the Global Health Impact Fund, bene : studio helps startups and enterprises build the software and apps they need on their paths towards digital transformation.
MetaOptima
Headquarters: Vancouver, British Columbia
Founders: Maryam Sadeghi, PhD and Majid Razmara, PhD
Igniting Innovation: If there were ever a dermatological dream team, MetaOptima would be in the starting roster.
When the coronavirus pandemic hit, MetaOptima was there to help health professionals migrate towards Teledermatology.
Many dermatology conditions can be diagnosed just by looking at them, which makes virtual consultations and analysis all the more relevant.
MetaOptima’s advanced platform provides solutions that are more than skin-deep, and the 7 Gate Ventures portfolio company is a world leader in intelligent dermatology and skin analytics.
Levels
Headquarters: New York, New York
Founders: Casey Means, MD, Sam Corcos Josh Clemente, David Flinner, and Andrew Conner
Igniting Innovation: It isn’t every day you come across an innovative startup founded by a quintessential quintet of healthtech talent, but that’s precisely what you get with Levels.
Levels combines wearable sensors with a mobile app to monitor glucose and overall metabolic fitness in real-time.
With nationwide lockdowns, people have been forced to make hard decisions about their health — from where and when to exercise to deciding whether or not to cook healthy at home, or order delivery.
Diabetes is on the rise during the pandemic, and Levels Chief Medical Officer Casey Means warned in a Forbes article that over 40% of those perishing from COVID in Mexico also had diabetes or were obese.
UpGuys
Headquarters: Vancouver, British Columbia
Founder: Mat Rezaei
Igniting Innovation: Stress among households is increasing during the coronavirus lockdowns, and this can also have negative effects in the bedroom as well.
7 Gate Ventures-backed UPGuys offers up remedies for men to cope with the added anxiety, from facilitating visits with professionals to helping with erectile dysfunction and hair loss.
Through UPGuys, Founder Mat Rezai has found a way to help men with some of their most sensitive issues, so they can gain back their confidence, happiness, and overall health.
Vault Dragon
Headquarters: Singapore
Founder: Ching-Tse Tseng
Igniting Innovation: Vault Dragon facilitates the flow of data between the biomedical sector and the healthcare industry.
Placing priority on the patient over the provider, the Singapore-based group is looking to build a “Google Maps for healthcare data” in Asia.
Vault Dragon is a graduate of the Founder Institute — the world’s largest pre-seed startup accelerator program.
Abartys Health
Headquarters: San Juan, Puerto Rico
Founders: Dolmarie Mendez and Lauren Cascio
Igniting Innovation: Abartys Health recently launched a one-stop shop for patients to simplify their healthcare needs.
As the coronavirus pandemic continues to rage on, Abartys Health’s patientLynk portal uses the universal patient ID to give quicker response times on lab test results, and this goes for COVID-19 testing as well.
Overall, the San Juan-based healthtech startup is improving the way data flows between patients, providers, and insurers.
Heal
Headquarters: Los Angeles, California
Founders: Dr. Renee Dua, MD, Greg Drobnick, and Nick Desai
Igniting Innovation: Backed by Lionel Ritchie and serving hundreds of patients every day, Heal is like a delivery service, but instead of delivering medical supplies, it delivers doctors straight to your door, PC, or mobile device.
In other words, Heal facilitates virtual house calls through its mobile app, where fully qualified and licensed doctors are attentive to every patient need.
With Heal, you can always find trained professionals from the comfort of your own home, no matter where you live.
Roundtrip
Headquarters: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Founder: Mark Switaj
Igniting Innovation: Literally driving better health outcomes, Roundtrip just raised $4 million to scale its online marketplace for healthcare transportation.
Due to social distancing measures, public transport may not always be running at full capacity, and during the pandemic Roundtrip has expanded its transportation services not just for patients, but for clinicians as well.
While telehealth is on rise, the need for in-person care still remains, and the Roundtrip team is largely made up of former paramedics and healthcare professionals who carry with them years of experience in their fields.
Disclosure: This article includes clients of an Espacio portfolio company
