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"Top Disruptors in Healthcare" report. Polish medtech sector

"Top Disruptors in Healthcare" is the only report in Poland that catalogues the Polish medtech sector. Its organizers presented its partial statistical results based on responses from nearly 100 startups.

Startups during the coronavirus

91% of startups indicated that the COVID-19 pandemic affected their business moderately or significantly. It may also have affected the scope of their business - compared to last year's report, a larger percentage of startups offer telemedicine (52% vs. 46%) and artificial intelligence (43% vs. 30%) solutions.

Interestingly, only one healthcare blockchain startup emerged. This may indicate a continued lack or very little use of this technology for transparency and security of data processing. 

Medtech sector

Data from the report shows that the medtech sector is noticeably growing, with as many as 61% of respondents indicating that their organization is in the commercialization or expansion stage, compared to 56% of startups last year. Recurring sales revenue is claimed by 42% (2021 Report) and 43% (2020 Report) of respondents.

  • Only 37% of startups declare a funding level of less than PLN 1 million.
  • Funding above PLN 10 million applies to 15% of respondents.
  • At the same time, almost twice as many startups, compared to last year, declare financing their operations from their own resources.

The institutions with which startups most often cooperate are hospitals (67%). Slightly more than half of the respondents cooperate with investors, while only 23% and 22% declare cooperation with gas pedals and incubators, respectively.

Almost all respondents are already present or want to be present on foreign markets. Unfortunately, the number of startups that record revenue from foreign sales has decreased - 16% vs. 22% while maintaining a similar percentage of respondents who have signed commercial agreements with foreign customers (16% and 15%).

Comments

- The past year has been particularly experienced by the medical and healthcare industry. However, a side effect of the pandemic was an unprecedented use of new technologies and, more broadly, digital health solutions in healthcare systems and the creation of new products in an open innovation format. EIT Health analysis shows that the interest in startups developing medtech, biotech or digital health products and services has increased over the past year among investment funds and business angels. Also large corporations have become more courageous in reaching for startup solutions, such as a virtual assistant for oncology patients. Meanwhile, as the results of the "Top Disruptors in Healthcare" survey show, Polish start-ups still rely heavily on their own funds. At the same time, every second start-up declares a desire to expand into foreign markets. And it is in cooperation with European organizations, but on Polish ground, that I would see great opportunities for the development of Polish innovation. In 2020, we examined how the network of connections between startups and key stakeholders of the health care system in Poland looks like. Among the organizations with the highest ratio of connections were the National Centre for Research and Development, the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development and EIT Health. More details will be provided in the final version of the report - Mikołaj Gurdała, EIT Health InnoStars innovation manager.

- Polish medical startups look at the global market without complexes. Only 2% have no plans to expand abroad. Telemedicine, AI, machine learning are areas that can successfully become our export "commodity". PZU Zdrowie is willing to cooperate with domestic technology companies whose solutions support the treatment and service processes of our patients. One of them is the software for stroke diagnosis in CT scans, which we have implemented in our diagnostic imaging centers with BrainScan. The AI model was developed based on data from 40,000 studies from our labs. It reduces the time to perform a description, if a stroke is detected, from several hours to even a few minutes and allows us to help the patient quickly. I believe that an initiative like Top Disruptors in Healthcare will strengthen the synergy between Polish startups and the healthcare sector - Anna Janiczek, President, PZU Health.

- The maturity and number of startups that submitted to the Report, as well as the focus on telemedicine and artificial intelligence in health, are further proof that Poland is becoming a serious player on the medtech map of this part of the world. Companies from Poland have a chance to take an important place in the global value chain by operating on this market. AstraZeneca being a global biotech company develops models of cooperation with start-ups. Our joint projects focus, on the one hand, on improving the quality of healthcare delivery and, on the other hand, on optimising clinical trials. At the center of our activities is always the patient, so when creating and implementing digital solutions, we also involve patient organizations in our work. Our Innovation Hubs operate successfully in Israel and Sweden. We hope that soon we will create a similar hub in Poland, to which we will invite both start-ups and patients - Piotr Najbuk, External Relations Director AstraZeneca.

- For a few years now, we have been observing dynamic development of start-ups from the Health/MedTech sector in Poland. Many of them offer innovative technologies and approach to the subject of health care, demonstrating a high international potential, and thus increasing opportunities for expansion into foreign markets. The results of this year's survey strongly confirm our experience from working with startups such as Infermedica, Stethome, or SensDx. We have great scientists who are increasingly combining medical knowledge with business. Google for Startups offers startups from HealthTech sector not only support in using Google technology, but also best practices in product development, business mentoring and support in market analysis and international expansion - Michał Kramarz, Director of Google for Startups in Central and Eastern Europe, Head of Google for Startups Campus in Warsaw.

Publication of the Report in June 2021.

More statistics and final results will be available after the official publication of the Report this June at the AI in Health conference. The main partners of the Report are: EIT Health, PZU Health, AstraZeneca and Google for Startups. Supporting partners are: Honeywell and DZP Law Firm.

Startups that would like to participate in the Report are invited to contact us. The deadline for submitting responses is the end of March 2021. Contact: Ligia Kornowska, Managing Director of PFSz, [email protected], +48 690 875 075.