#266 Funding has a certain ring to it š
The one-minute healthtech roundup, brought to you by SomX.
Hi friends,
This week we saw a certain wearable get a bumper valuation upgrade, thereās bags of money all over the place for healthtech companies, and even the best of the best get caught using ChatGPT... Except usāobviously.*
This week: Listen to SomXās OG Belle and rookie, Harry, chatting through this weekās stories on the Healthtech Pigeon podcast ā¬ļø
And itās on YouTube. Weāre modern like that.
News Bites š„Ŗ
š Oura hits $11bn valuation after $900m Series E: The Finnish health tech startup known for its fancy-looking smart rings has raised over $900m in a new funding round, pushing its total valuation to a very neat $11bn. Also interesting to note that Ouraās chief commercial officer has vocalised that itās focusing more on winning young women and losing gym rats, and is fine with that. Sorry, gym bros: Guess thereās always Whoop?
š Deloitte issues refund for error-ridden Australian government report that used AI: Egg on face for Deloitte this past week, who said theyāll give a partial refund to the Australian federal government after admitting to use of GenAI to help produce a $440,000 report that contained a heck of a lot of errors (I mean, what even happened to proofreading? What even happened to proofreading? What even happened to proofreading? Ok, we get it - Ed). So, next time youāre looking for a healthtech strategy, consider upgrading your AI before handing buckets of cash to the Big 4. Or⦠hear me out⦠paying a human who knows things.
š¼ Infosys awarded Ā£1.2 billion contract for future NHS workforce platform: Consulting and digital services company Infosys has been handed an NHS contract valued at Ā£1.2 billion with the aim of delivering an enhanced workforce solution in line with the UK governmentās 10-year health plan. The tech giant has also shared plans to use AI tools in order to help streamline workforce planning: Letās hope they donāt run into the same problems that Deloitte have with this approach ^.
š° ā¬30M committed to healthtech fund to accelerate global innovation: Spex Capital, an early-stage investor tackling global healthcare challenges through innovative tech solutions, has announced the first of its funds to help entrepreneurs along the way as part of a larger flagship ā¬100 million global Venture Healthtech Fund. Budding companies in the Series A/B weeds, this oneās for you š
𩺠[Study] AI-based screening system leverages home-videos to improve early autism diagnosis: Diagnosing autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is resource-intensive, reliant on trained professionals, suffers from observer bias, is time-consuming, and limited in accessibility due to high cost and the need for specialised training. Enter AI (the old skool stuff⦠machine learning⦠that we talked about before LLMs - itās still going apparently), which extracted behavioural features automatically from 510 children in South Korea using home-videos. Results were promising, not perfect, but you can see where this is going. Huge potential to increase diagnostic resource.
š§ Lyra launches āclinical-gradeā chatbot amid growing concern about mental health and AI: Mental health provider Lyra Health has launched one of the first large-scale generative AI tools aimed to integrate directly into ongoing therapy, placing them slightly ahead of many smaller startups already experimenting with AI-driven therapy support. However, given the aforementioned Deloitte mishap, Pigeon canāt help but question the important safety and trust questions these ventures raise, especially as evidence mounts around consumer chatbotsā unpredictable behaviour and psychological risks, and reinforcing how major players are attempting to balance innovation with clinical oversight in one of healthcareās most sensitive domains (here here!).
And last but not leastā¦
š¤ The world is just not quite ready for humanoids yet: Technophobes can breathe a temporary sigh of relief as a recent essay by iRobot founder Rodney Brooks has called out the problem with pouring billions of dollars into humanoid robot companies: The bots just wonāt be able to learn dexterity, so (he argues, donāt shoot the messenger pigeon here) rendering them essentially useless š«
What to Listen to š
Events š
Global Health Exhibition
š
October 27 - 30
šRiyadh Exhibition and Convention Center (Malham)
Stage Two Berlin
š
October 28 - 30
šBerlin, Germany
Transforming Rare Disease Detection Across Clinical Care ā An initiative around HPP in adults
š
October 30
šOnline
8th ZIMAM Digital Health Forum
š
November 4 - 8
šDubai, UAE
OHT London: Monthly HealthTech Breakfast: Spotlight on Health Equity
š
November 4
š Hale House, London
NXGN The Launch Equation @ Hale House (sponsored by Alethira)
š
November 5
š Hale House, London
HealthtechX
š
November 5
š Hurlingham Club, London
IEEE Global Public Health Forum 2025 ā Powering AI for Climate-Ready Population Health
š
Nov 6
šLondon, UK
BMJ Future Health conference
š
Nov 6 - 7
š London
š” Save 20% off the ticket price with the code PIGEON20
Opportunities šµļøāāļø
Not a great Q3? Performance review aināt performing? Take a look at what weāve found on offer this week for your next career pivot:
AI and Health Researcher at Terra API
Head of Research at Genomics
Growth Specialist at Healthtech-1
VP Pharmacovigilance at Bionical Emas
Medical Operations (Mental Health) at Tandem Health
Programme Lead for Experimental Medicine, Research Infrastructure at NIHR
Executive Director Evidence Generation (TA) at Novartis
* Good joke with the em dash, right?









ā š
It's too bad, I really liked using that thing!