Google launched its ‘Google for Startup: AI for Health’ program in May 2023 to partner with startups using AI for healthcare. The tech giant aimed to help these startups build AI tools responsibly and provide them with resources to scale. Hence, it called startups from Europe, the Middle East and Africa to apply for the 3-month program.
In this article, we cover the 30 startups that got selected for the program. Let’s dive in!
Healthtech startups selected for Google for Startup AI program
Last week, Google announced 30 startups from 15 countries that made it to the program. Three from the Middle East, five from Africa and 22 from Europe.
Here’s our observation of these 30 startups:
Digital Therapeutics/primary care and HCP support are the bigger clusters
These two areas have significant challenges which the selected startups aim to solve. Of the 30 startups, 17 fall in these categories.
With teleconsultations and proactive healthcare becoming the norm after the pandemic, the demand for direct-to-consumer solutions has increased. Digital therapeutics startups aim to bridge this demand gap and enable users to proactively take care of their health, make lifestyle modifications and improve health outcomes.
Healthcare provider (HCP) support solutions address significant challenges emerging in the healthcare space—doctor burnout and staff shortages. Startups using AI to solve these issues are making quality healthcare accessible to more people.
Mental Health support is still the need of the hour
4 out of 30 are mental health startups.
The pandemic has blurred the line between personal and professional life. With work-from-home and hybrid work models kicking in, several employees now find it difficult to maintain a work-life balance. Startups helping people take care of their mental health and wellness are needed more than ever.
Some notable observations:
- There’s one DNA sequencing startup, indicating that genome sequencing is still in budding stages.
- Two selected startups—Wellx and Activate Health—work on incentive and reward systems. It’s an interesting way to motivate users to take care of their health.
- AI-powered voice assistant startups—Talkie.ai and Tucuvi—show how natural language processing and speech recognition have improved over the years.
- It’s interesting to see a startup, Techspert, building a network of experts to facilitate better decision-making.
Few interesting observations by the TLGG group:
- It is interesting to see 2 parenting startups among the mix—StethoMe and Anya Health.
- Israel, which is considered a prominent player in digital health, has only one startup selected for the program.
- Europe has a bigger representation when compared to the Middle East and Africa. It can be due to Google’s strong presence in the region.
Here’s the list of the healthtech startups selected for Google for Startup AI program:
African healthtech startups that got into Google for Startup AI program
- Eden Care (Rwanda)
Eden Care is an employee benefit startup providing corporate health insurance and wellness packages. It offers comprehensive and affordable healthcare coverage to businesses in Africa.
- iZola (Kenya)
iZola is a therapeutics platform for children with neurodivergent needs. It aims to simplify a child’s neurohealth journey by enabling early diagnosis and offering evidence-based interventions and community support.
- mDoc (Nigeria)
mDoc is a chronic care startup that provides a virtual ecosystem of quality care and multidisciplinary support to people with chronic diseases like hypertension, diabetes, cancer, etc. It aims to help them manage their symptoms and provide 24/7 care and support.
- Pharmarun (Nigeria)
Pharmarun is an African e-pharmacy startup simplifying medicine delivery. The on-demand platform provides door-step medicine delivery, free teleconsultations and several other benefits to make quality medicine accessible to everyone.
- Zuri Health (Kenya)
Zuri Health is a telemedicine platform that provides affordable and accessible healthcare solutions. It offers a spectrum of services, including e-pharmacy, diagnostics, teleconsultations, corporate wellness and continuous care programs for Africa’s underserved population.
Middle East healthtech startups that got into Google for Startup AI program
- Kahun (Israel)
Kahun is an AI-powered clinical assistant for physicians. It conducts pre-consultation clinical assessment to deliver an evidence-based clinical summary to healthcare providers.
- Pharmacy Marts (Egypt)
Pharmacy Marts is Egypt’s first online pharmacy supplies platform. It’s a digital marketplace connecting medical suppliers and pharmacists across Egypt.
- Wellx (United Arab Emirates)
Wellx is a digital-first health insurance provider that encourages healthy habits by providing cashback as an incentive. The health-tech startup hyper-personalises wellness experience and allows users to complete their insurance journey online.
European healthtech startups that got into Google for Startup AI program
- Acorai (Sweden)
Acorai is a MedTech startup revolutionising cardiac care. It offers a heart failure monitoring platform supported by its handheld and portable device to monitor intracardiac pressure.
- Activate Health (Estonia)
Activate Health is an AI-powered platform that uses gamification to help users take charge of their health and wellness. It rewards healthy habits with health points and prizes, motivating users to take care of their health.
- Adntro Genetics (Spain)
Adntro Genetics is a DNA-sequencing startup. It offers a comprehensive report on your genetic risks and predispositions with personalised nutrition and training suggestions from just a saliva sample.
- Anya (United Kingdom)
Anya is a healthtech startup combining AI and evidence-based information on a mobile application. It provides personalised support to parents and to-be parents on their breastfeeding and parenting journey.
- Biocam (Poland)
Biocam is a healthtech startup designing and manufacturing endoscopic capsules to provide non-invasive medical imaging of the digestive system. Its AI-powered software and mobile application allow automatic detection and real-time imaging.
- Cara Care (Germany)
Cara Care is an AI-powered startup that offers a digital therapeutic platform for people with chronic gastrointestinal issues like IBD, IBS, GERD and dyspepsia. Its mobile application offers personalised and holistic solutions to help patients manage their symptoms.
- clare&me (Germany)
Clare&me is an AI-powered mental health companion, making mental health support accessible and affordable to everyone. Through phone calls and WhatsApp chats, Clare becomes the virtual therapist who guides users through self-reflective exercises and grounding techniques.
- Deemea (France)
Deemea is a data engineering platform for medical imaging. It uses the power of AI to develop tools that assist in the extraction and analysis of real-time medical data.
- Doctomatic (Spain)
Doctomatic is a remote patient monitoring medical software tool for improved healthcare clinical trials. It also allows healthcare providers to monitor chronic patients and analyse and evaluate their health data without physical visits.
- EQL (United Kingdom)
EQL is an AI-driven physical therapy assessment tool that helps clinicians to assess a patient’s physical functions and identify areas of improvement. For people with joint and muscle issues, it enables quick access to the best available care.
- ExactCure (France)
ExactCure develops disruptive software solutions for better use of drugs. It builds digital twins of patients to simulate the effectiveness and interactions of drugs in patients’ bodies.
- Labplus (Poland)
Labplus is an AI-powered software enhancing medical diagnostics. It automates the analysis of lab test results to provide faster and more accurate result interpretation and diagnosis.
- Likeminded (Germany)
Likeminded is a healthtech startup providing personalised mental health support for corporate employees. It helps employers create healthier and more productive workplaces for employees by improving their overall well-being.
- Mindstep (United Kingdom)
Mindstep is a mental health startup that helps users improve their brain and mental health through AI-powered assessments and personalised programs.
- MX Labs (Estonia)
MX Labs is a healthtech startup developing camera-based health screening. Its flagship software platform uses computer vision and AI to comprehensively monitor users’ vital signs with just a smartphone.
- Rayscape (Romania)
Rayscape is an AI-powered digital assistant for radiologists. It analyses X-rays and CT scans to assist radiologists in providing accurate medical imaging diagnosis.
- StethoMe (Poland)
StethoMe is a healthtech startup developing handheld digital stethoscopes to listen to children’s lung and heart sounds at home. Its AI-powered platform analyses those sounds and provides real-time feedback, enabling parents to reach out to physicians at the right time.
- Talkie.ai (Poland)
Talkie.ai is an AI-powered medical voice assistant. It uses advanced AI and speech recognition to automate call centre and front desk services for healthcare facilities.
- Techspert (United Kingdom)
Techspert is the leading network of healthcare and life sciences experts. Its AI-powered platform connects businesses with experts that precisely match their healthcare project needs.
- Tucuvi (Spain)
Tucuvi is a healthtech startup combining empathic AI and clinical evidence to automate follow-up phone consultations. It is a safe and clinically validated voice conversational AI assistant for healthcare.
- Vitadio (Czechia)
Vitadio is a digital therapeutics platform developing AI-powered solutions to help people manage chronic conditions. Currently, it helps reverse insulin resistance through AI-driven lifestyle modification.
- VOS Health (Czechia)
VOS Health is an AI-powered mental health application that provides personalised insights to help users improve their mood, reduce stress and anxiety and build positive mental habits.
What’s next for these startups?
Selected into the Google Growth Academy, these 30 startups will now have a chance to attend virtual workshops on AI best practices, product development, responsible innovation, customer acquisition and a lot more.
They will also receive one-on-one mentorship and technical project support from leading industry experts from Google’s various arms, including Google Research, Google Health, Verily, DeepMind and others.
The startups will have opportunities to network with global investors, VCs, industry stalwarts and other founders.
