#227 - Double double, toil and trouble
The one-minute healthtech roundup, brought to you by SomX. .
Hi friends,
This week: Big announcements from the UK government, the British Business Bank in the firing line and a melting pot of collaborations.
It’s 2025. You’ve been saying you need to get into podcasts. Why not start by 👀 listening to the Healthtech Pigeon podcast ➡️ Amy, Huw and James from SomX break down the best stories from this week’s newsletter. Available now on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
News Bites 🥪
💰UK in-home healthcare provider Cera raises $150M to scale its AI platform – The largest healthtech company in the UK bags a hefty $150 million to scale up its AI-powered in-home healthcare services. 30 million people across the country are already served by Cera, which is helping predict patient falls and hospitalisations.
🧪 IQVIA and NVIDIA Collaborate to Transform Healthcare and Life Sciences Through Advanced Agentic AI Solutions – Pigeon’s not going to lie: we found this one hard to read. No, not because it’s sad; Pigeon’s just allergic to jargon and this one got us all flared up. That said, we’re pretty psyched about agentic AI at Pigeon HQ. It’s just a shame we have to learn what ‘custom domain specific models and agents for complex workflows’ are before we can benefit.
👎 ‘The returns are awful’: why taxpayers are racking up losses on British start-ups – When Pigeon read the first four words of the headline, we assumed it was a quote from the boss about his ongoing investment into this newsletter. To our relief (and surprise), it’s actually about how, despite the UK taxpayer being the biggest investor in tech start-ups, the returns have been a bit underwhelming. It’s almost as if VC is a high-risk asset class. Wait…it is? Who knew?
🕹️ CBT-based app helps children self-manage anxiety through ‘quests’ – Say hello to Lumi Nova! This CBT-based app, designed for kids, uses fun, personalised challenges to help them build long-term mental resilience and manage anxiety before starting therapy. Note to self: Reach out to the BFB Labs team about an avian-friendly version of the app.
🔗 Amazon and General Catalyst Launch AI-Focused Health Partnership – AWS’s and GC’s AI-powered partnership promises to predict your health problems before you even begin to notice them. “The Potential here is vast”, say spokespeople; the detail? Less so. The goal? Prevent disease and cut costs. But honestly, Pigeon’s starting to feel like we’re living in a Black Mirror episode…
💵 Breath Biopsy pioneer Owlstone reveals $27m first close of Series E – Owlstone Medical is starting off the year strong with the first close of its Series E round to advance its Breath Biopsy® platform for early disease detection. The funding will drive diagnostic tests for lung cancer, chronic liver diseases, and digestive disorders. With clinical trials already underway, we’ll be watching closely.
📝Startups Welcome UK AI Action Plan, But With Caveats – It was a big week for the government with the announcement of their ambitious AI Opportunities Action Plan, which, luckily for them, has been welcomed by startups for its focus on infrastructure, public-private partnerships, and public data access. However, more work is needed on workforce training and, if we’re honest, a little bit more info on health. Read the full action plan
👩💻 EU Health Technology Assessment to revolutionise patient care – Pigeon’s got our ear to the regulatory ground for you: the EU’s Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Regulation launched earlier this week promising a faster, less bureaucratic path to get medicines and devices to patients. And who are we to sniff at efficiency?
🚺 How Venture Capital Investment In Women’s Health Changed In 2024 – 2024 felt like the biggest year yet for investment in women’s health, or at least the biggest yet for long reports on women’s health investments. Turns out venture capitalists didn’t read any of them: Funding for female founders dipped, undoing 2023’s progress. Here’s to turning things around in 2025, eh?
What to listen to 🔊
Events 📅
Health Innovation Wessex - Health Innovation Programme
🕣 Jan 21
📍 Southampton
Arab Health
🕣 Jan 27-30
📍 Dubai World Trade Centre
The Festival of Genomics & Biodata
🕣 Jan 29-30
📍 London
London’s TechBio Revolution
🕣 Jan 29
📍 London
Visit the SomX events page or subscribe to SomX’s events roundup to see all of the best upcoming healthtech, biotech and healthcare events.
Opportunities 🕵️♀️
👨💼 Sales Development Representative, Kitt Medical — If maintaining good client relationships is what you do and working towards targets gives you a thrill, why not join the team at Kitt Medical who are on a mission is to create a new standard for allergy care?
💻 Head of Operations - Radiology Services, DMC Healthcare — This one is for the Type A person of the friendship group. If you thrives on improving processes and creating well oiled machines, Pigeon has the role for you!
👷 Senior Engineering Manager, DrDoctor — DrDoctor are looking for someone the lead their Engineering team, combining your strategic thinking with engineering know-how to drive organisational success.
📈 Analytics Engineer, Birdie — It’s pretty clear that Pigeon has a way with words. Numbers, however? Not so much. If digits and data are more up your alley, apply for this role today!
Got news, jobs or events you think is worth coo-ing over? Let us know! Email us: news@healthtechpigeon.com
Healthtech Pigeon is curated and produced by SomX, the communications and creative agency for healthcare. We are clinicians, scientists, creatives and communicators dedicated to serving our healthtech, biotech, pharma and public sector clients with services across strategy, content, PR, design, events and media production. Get in touch to learn more.