7 digital healthcare startups selected for Future of Health Grant programme

The Future of Health Grant programme to support innovation in digital healthcare has entered the next stage. The 7 new start-ups selected from among 96 applications will benefit from funding and know-how to help them accelerate solution development.

The second group of start-ups was presented on Thursday, 9 February, by the co-initiators of the Future of Health Grant, CSS and EPFL Innovation Park, as well as the programme partners. A whole ecosystem of partners and experts in digital healthcare is emerging at EPFL Innovation Park. CSS continues to advance its work on innovation for more efficient healthcare.

Enabling them to develop their solutions faster, the selected start-ups will benefit from financial support, as well as tailor-made coaching and mentoring services in business and digital healthcare. Start-ups selected for level 1 will receive an ignition grant of CHF10k. The POC grant for level 2 start-ups is worth CHF30k. Both grants are equity and interest free.

The selected start-ups for level 1:

  1. e.rupt: app for overcoming erectile dysfunction (Zurich)

  2. HappyGrandy: platform for seniors to video call easily with their existing TV (Neuchâtel)

  3. HealthMe: better healthcare thanks to improved patient-doctor communication (Martigny)

  4. Longevity Hub: app empowering healthy ageing thanks to a healthier lifestyle (Lille, France)

  5. Onescope: digital stethoscope for real-time diagnosis (Geneva)

The selected start-ups for level 2:

  1. Ancora.ai: platform to recruit cancer patients for relevant clinical trials (Zurich)

  2. YLAH: app enabling continuing psychotherapy between sessions (Bern), YLAH moves from level 1 to level 2.

An ecosystem of partners to accelerate innovation

Pooling experience and ideas speed up innovation. Nowhere is this truer than in healthcare, where the problems differ significantly from one player to the next, and all within a complex regulatory framework. The Future of Health Grant programme creates and grows an ecosystem of experts. The programme’s committed partners will share their expertise with our startups. To date, these are Vaudoise Insurance, which awards an additional “mental health” prize, Pfizer, La Source School of Nursing, Microsoft Health, Takeda, Zühlke, HE-ARC, Publicis Sapient, and Hôpital de la Tour.