24 start-ups selected for Bridgehead programme

22nd November 2021

Twenty-four start-ups have been selected to join EIT Health’s Bridgehead programme, within which they will receive support to expand their presence to new European and global markets.

Bridgehead sees promising health start-ups gain crucial connections and experience through EIT Health’s vast and diverse network. Selected start-ups gain the opportunity to meet and match with EIT Health partners, and subsequently travel to and learn directly from the experts on how to activate business in the desired region(s).

The start-ups are working to improve healthcare in areas of high unmet need such as mental health, emergency medicine, and eye and vision care, and hail from 14 countries. The final 24 were selected based on the ingenuity of their solution, business model and the traction already achieved in their home market (the country they first launched their solution in).

The start-ups selected for Bridgehead are:

ABANZA (Spain)*: specialises in soft tissue repair by developing new surgical techniques, devices, and medical instruments.

AkknaTek (Germany): provides innovative solutions for ophthalmology, with a focus on cataract surgery.

BestHealth4U (Portugal)*: specialises in developing new and advanced material solutions for medical adhesives and skin-interacting medical devices.

BeneTalk (England): a digital speech therapy app helping people who stutter to communicate more comfortably.

BioT:Connect (Israel)*: a platform which helps connect medical devices to the cloud.

Bitbrain (Spain)*: provides high-tech electroencephalogram brain sensing devices and software solutions for human behaviour research, health and neurotechnology development.

BV Medical Technologies (Spain): develops healthcare products and methods to help better treat and diagnose conditions in the areas of otolaryngology, urology, paediatrics, and thoracic surgery.

DermaPurge (Germany): develops, produces and markets specialised products to clean the skin from hazardous substances.

Gripwise Tech (Portugal): gathers data to support frailty and sarcopenia assessments in a simple and effective workflow, aiming to maintain health and quality of life of the elderly.

Healthy Mind (France): a medical device that combines neuroscience, virtual reality, and medical hypnosis to reduce pain and anxiety.

IKNOWHOW (Greece): makes Evorad, a radiology information system and picture archiving and communications system that easily connects with hospital IT systems.

I’m Fine (Romania): a digital solution that provides psychological support and connects people to psychotherapists.

KAMU Health (Finland): develops digital therapeutics to help chronic respiratory patients manage their condition.

HumanITcare (Spain): a telemedicine platform powered by real-life data for remote home monitoring of patients with chronic diseases.

Medicine Men (The Netherlands): develops a range of remote patient engagement mobile solutions to help improve the quality of life of chronically ill patients.

Neolook (The Netherlands): offers augmented video services in neonatal intensive care units to support bonding and family ties, assist professional learning and advance medical understanding.

N-Vibe (France): develops haptic smart bands which vibrate to guide people with visual impairments, helping them to feel safer.

PubGene (Norway)*: uses data and AI technology to create personalised treatment option reports offering guidance to patients and clinicians.

Parkinson Smartwatch (The Netherlands): is a smartwatch which helps people living with Parkinson´s manage their condition and treatment and supports them in their discussions with doctors.

Sublimed (France): develops drug-free treatment based on neurostimulation for relieving chronic pain.

SurgiQ (Italy): provides AI-based healthcare planning tools for hospitals, helping to reducing time spent scheduling activities, and increase resource utilisation.

Tidewave (Norway): removes the need for manual repositioning of patients. The Tidewave turning mattress is automating this procedure to prevent and treat pressure ulcers.

Wellola (Ireland): an adaptable patient communications platform that plugs-in to hospital and clinic systems to give patients access to their healthcare information.

Onward Assist (India): aims to improve cancer treatment outcomes facilitating accurate and timely diagnosis and simplifying the process.

To find out more about the EIT Health Bridgehead programme, please visit eithealth.eu/bridgehead.

*these start-ups were selected as part of the year-long EIT-EIC CollabPilot project. This project was funded via H2020 with 1M€ and is coordinated by EIT Health. This article reflects EIT Health’s view. While this project receives funding of one million euros from the European Commission’s H2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101035792, the European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency (EISMEA) is not responsible for this article and any use that may be made of the information it contains. The pilot project start date was 5th July 2021 and the end date is 4th July 2022.