Europe’s next generation of elite health innovation start-ups recognised

Europe’s highest-potential life science and healthtech start-ups have today been named today as winners of the 2024 EIT Health Catapult programme, run with our Partners BioRN, Medical Valley, and Cap Digital. A jury of industry leaders, academics, and health innovation investors selected the winners from nine finalists at the health.tech conference in Munich.

We are delighted to congratulate this year’s winners:

• Life Science: CELEX Oncology (UK), which is treating invasive and metastatic cancer via transformation
• HealthTech: Acorai (Sweden), which is developing the first handheld, non-invasive ICP monitor
• Audience-voted Alex Casta Award: Dymium (Germany), which is pioneering magnetism-based residue-free extraction of kidney stones

In addition to the recognition afforded the winners and finalists, industry leaders from EIT Health Catapult’s Industry partners AstraZeneca, AWS for Life Sciences, eg technology, and Lusíadas Saúde, have committed to providing additional support to select participants and winners.

Winners join the ranks of Europe’s best-funded health innovators

The Catapult programme is backed by a community of more than 400 investors and 2,500 healthcare professionals, and aims to accelerate the growth of European health start-ups through access to expertise and financing.

Since the programme’s launch in 2016, Catapult alumni have gone on to collectively raise €550+ million through grants, funding, and acquisitions, including over 20 EIC grants. Previous investors and healthcare relevant stakeholders that have acquired or invested in semi-finalists and finalists include industry giants Alira Health, BioNTech, Exact Sciences, Jeito, 4BIO, and 10x Genomics.

Catapult alumni include many of biotech, medtech, and digital health’s best-funded and most acclaimed start-ups and scale-ups, including ADVITOS, AZmed, Cartana, deepeye, inHEART, Leuko, Limula, Methinks, Mimark, neuroClues, OmicEra, Peptomyc, PhagoMed, SolasCure, SparingVision, StemSight, Surge, and Xund.

Jean-Marc Bourez, CEO of EIT Health, comments: “Every year, EIT Health Catapult discovers start-ups from across Europe that have the potential to positively change the lives of millions of people around the world. Having supported our alumni in raising well over half a billion euros in investment is testament not only to the work of EIT Health Catapult, but also the talent, vision and innovative thinking of the European health-tech space. Announcing CELEX Oncology, Acorai, and Dymium as the three primary winners of the 2024 edition of the programme is yet another step on the journey of European healthcare innovation, that we at EIT Health are as proud as ever to be backing.”

Industry leaders provide support to finalists and winners

AstraZeneca will provide finalists Acorai and Exhalation Technology with fasttrack into AstraZeneca’s BeyondVenture Program and access to a tailored mentoring programme with industry experts.

Amazon Web Services will provide Activate l Credits for use on the AWS Cloud for all semifinalists and finalists, as well as visibility on AWS media channels and technical and business development office hours for Acorai.

eg technology will provide technical consultancy to three Healthtech startups: Plio Surgical (five days); Medicud (three days); Dymium (two days).

Lusíadas Saúde will offer Digistain, Acorai, and Five Lives pilots at Lusiadas Group hospitals plus clinical/technological transfer consultancy and data protection and cybersecurity in healthcare advice.

The winner of the audience-selected Alex Casta Award will see its company logo illuminated on the Nasdaq Tower in New York’s Time Square.

2024 finalists

2024’s three winners were selected from nine finalists by a panel of industry experts and investors including representatives from M Ventures and Novo Holdings.

The full list of 2024 Catapult finalists:

• Acorai (Sweden) is developing the first handheld, non-invasive intracardiac pressure (ICP) monitor to improve workflow efficiencies and patient outcomes.
• CELEX Oncology (UK) focuses on treating invasive and metastatic cancer forms by turning aggressive cancer into a benign state, allowing patients to live with the disease.
• Digistain (UK) is developing a risk profiling test for hormone receptor-positive breast cancer, providing oncologists with decision-making data in just 15 minutes.
• Dymium  (Germany) is a game-changing medical system for the residue-free extraction of kidney stones. Using a biocompatible suspension to magnetise kidney stone fragments, stone fragments can be extracted magnetically without leaving residues.
• Five Lives  (France) is developing a mobile solution for the prevention, early detection and treatment of dementia risk factors with the goal of helping ageing populations make the most of increased life expectancies and reducing healthcare costs.
• nen (Spain) is developing evidence-based digital therapeutics to help kids fighting cancer, their families, and their doctors manage pain through play by leveraging gamification of cognitive behavioural therapy to modulate pain and improve a child’s overall well-being and outcomes.
• Pan Cancer T (Netherlands) is developing the next generation of T cell therapeutics for hard-to-treat solid tumours exploiting untapped tumour selective targets.
• POLYGON Therapeutics (France) is a cardio-immunology biotech that is aiming to improve CVD care by targeting and regulating the immuno-inflammatory responses at work.
• Saphenus Medical Technology  (Austria) is tackling phantom pain for amputees with the feeling of prosthesis by adapting the prosthesis to the body of amputees so that they feel it on their limbs.