Six Healthtech Takeaways from Bits & Pretzels 2023 (Europe)

The second annual health.tech | global summit conference has confirmed its growing position as Europe’s go-to startup/early innovation event for the healthcare industry. The pulse of innovation and European level connections reflect an attendee base spanning the entire industry ecosystem – from startups and MedTech manufacturers across tech companies and policymakers and all the way to investors and pharma executives. 

HTEC Group’s Head of HealthTech, Sava Marinkovich , had the privilege to participate and speak around value creation with other VC panelists at the “The Right Investors for Your Business Model” session on the EIT Health stage. Aside from his official responsibilities, Sava also had his ear on all the relevant discussions in the program, as well as much of the less formal yet just as important hallway chatter. He was kind enough to share his main impressions from an eventful couple of days: 

#1: An expanding number of senior decision makers recognize early-stage innovation is key. 

While Bits & Pretzel attracted important figures across multiple industries at last year’s inaugural event, this year was quite larger and more impactful.  Over 1,700 C-level participants demonstrated an enthusiasm to shape the European healthtech industry. Why is this important? European health innovation is unique as it is opportunistic. Innovations necessarily have to account for the challenges and opportunities that Europe provides over any other market but can create strong market positions as a result (e.g., defensible positions). 

#2: The Build, Buy, or Partner” decision for larger medtech continues to dominate discussions. 

Many of the conversations I’ve held with representatives of large corporations were underlined by the Build, Buy, or Partner decision. Corporations came out in large numbers to assess early-stage ideas, figuring out which of those are interesting and determining the path ahead. This dilemma was reflected consistently in the conversations focused around HTEC’s capacity to support their business decisions from the technical side.  Without trusted partners, decisions around integrating their “buy” decisions technically or building ideas from scratch and augmenting internal teams are far riskier, and realistically, large companies don’t have the adequate internal capability or bandwidth to do so.  

#3: Ventures show mature progress and expectations. 

One of the more encouraging changes to last year’s well of innovative ideas was their degree of market maturity – both in customer acquisition as well as moving well beyond the proof of concept and through getting their devices built. This was a big step forward from the previous year when significantly more earlier-stage ventures sought higher capital with higher associated risk.  While encouraging from a market perspective, the subsequent focus is on the technical and product debt that could hold back scalability and launch.

#4: Funding market stiffens 

The panel discussion in which I participated along with Jordi Ferrer Rendé of Ship2B Ventures, Fabian Mohr of HTGF | High-Tech Gründerfonds, Magdalena Plotczyk, PhD, of MTIP, and Dr. Christoph Massner of Earlybird Venture Capital, under moderation of Joy Cürten of EIT Health, offered a wealth of different perspectives from the intersection of venture capital and startup innovation. The main talking point, not only of this panel but for the entire event, was that the funding market was tough. Market conditions have changed: investor market priorities have changed, there is an increased expectation placed on startups to prove that their business model works, much more so than only a year ago. That being said, there is still plenty of capital, but the VCs are asking harder questions now. 

#5: DiGA regulations loom large 

With Germany’s new DiGA law (in German: “Digitale Gesundheitsanwendungen”) about digital health apps now in effect, and many other European countries looking to adopt similar resolutions, digital health has found a stable and progressive framework for innovation.  From the startup perspective, the additional complexity of getting a product to market can still be a boon or a major barrier.  Yet, it signals an evolution of how startups will approach future partnerships with organizations specialized in areas of safety, functionality, quality, data protection, data security, and interoperability. Gone are the days of the bootstrapped venture that launches without this type of help. 

#6: EIT Health remains impactful 

EIT Health, established in 2015 as a “knowledge and innovation community”, continues to evolve at the nexus of helping ventures and innovation succeed not just across Europe, but also into the USA and other major markets.  European startups need a special boost, more than in other large markets due to the regulatory and market constraints.  EIT Health has been filling this gap, but based on their roadmap ahead, I expect them to be a powerhouse for accelerating positive change.   

Overall, it was a great event with countless valuable insights and relevant conversations. I am excited to see how it continues to evolve in the years to come. Kudos to Bits & Pretzels HealthTech for a phenomenal get-together, EIT Health, and Roche for doing a fantastic job with the organization, as well as the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research for a much-needed dose of optimism and inspiration.  

 See you next year! 

HTEC continues to partner with venture funds as well as established companies to de-risk and make investments much more attractive and also create value for existing portfolio companies.