Who are Europe's most active Health-tech investors?

We compiled a list so you don't have to

One of the most common questions we hear from health-tech founders is, “who are the good seed-stage health-tech investors?” We compiled a U.S. list here, but lots of founders have asked us to put together a list for Europe. So here it is…

We opened this list to all investors in Europe, and we’re now sharing in time for the Q4 fundraising sprint.
[If you’d like to submit your fund for future edits of this post, please do so here.]

The concentration of health specialists in Europe remains within pre-seed and seed, with a somewhat predictable bias to B2B software. Even with the entry of several later stage US funds to Europe in recent years, the list of series A+ investment funds focusing on health remains short. So feels a pertinent time to refresh memories of our O.V. cheque size (€5-€20m), and Series A-B focus in Europe.

We had many submissions from some excellent generalist investors, but we’ve stayed true to the original intention of this list and have highlighted only the specialist health funds below. For anyone curious to see the full list of submissions, you can access them here.

Finally, the below list is in no particular order…other than alphabetical.

Ahren

What’s your typical check range? Up to $20M.

Who’s the best person to contact for an initial reach out? oliver@ahren.co.uk or joanna@ahren.co.uk

What areas of digital health do you invest in? Digital health that is supported by robust underlying science and technology.

What’s the number 1 thing you look for when it comes to deals? Founders with the vision, persistence and ability to change the world for the better.

How many deals does the fund do in a given year? And what % of these would be in healthtech/ digital health? 10-12 with c. 1/3rd in health.

The fund’s secret sauce? Ahren has five critical differentiating factors
1. Ahren’s founding partners, including Nobel Laureates, have created technologies worth >$100BN. On the life sciences side, they include:
2. Strong relationships with domain relevant corporates – potential customers for start-ups
3. Meaningful value add via Ahren’s Commercial Engine, which works with teams to accelerate their businesses.
4. Invests across domains and geographies, and strongly believes the future will be at the intersection of several domains (e.g., Health and Machine Learning)
5. Strong, shared values to change the world for the better

Notable deals in early-stage digital health? ZOE, Edifice Health.

Which geographies do you invest in? Predominantly Europe including the UK, North America and Israel.

Albion VC

What’s your typical check range? £1-5 million

Who’s the best person to contact for an initial reach out? Molly Gilmartin (mgilmartin@albion.vc)

What areas of digital health do you invest in? And don’t invest in? We focus on early-stage B2B health tech opportunities across both the patient/provider and the pharmaceutical value chains; AlbionVC also manages UCL Technology Fund which invests in early-stage life science opportunities out of UCL.

What’s the number 1 thing you look for when it comes to deals? Visionary founders with leadership potential and deep domain expertise.

How many deals does the fund do in a given year? And what % of these would be in healthtech/ digital health? Around 10 deals a year, with 30% in digital health.

The fund’s secret sauce? AlbionVC's health tech team have over 25 years' combined know-how in health tech investing alongside our unique platform team who support founders to lead, hire and scale their organisation.

Notable deals in early-stage digital health? Oviva, Healios

Which geographies do you invest in? Companies with UK HQ

Atlantic Labs

What’s your typical check range? €500k - €1.5 Mio

Who’s the best person to contact for an initial reach out? Bastian Bullmann

What areas of digital health do you invest in? And don’t invest in? Every tech-enabled business in the healthcare space is of interest to us. In the past we have also invested in multiple medtech companies.

What’s the number 1 thing you look for when it comes to deals? Founding team and especially a certain background within the industry.

How many deals does the fund do in a given year? And what % of these would be in healthtech/ digital health? 15-20 (10-20%)

The fund’s secret sauce? Not shying away from bold founders with even bolder ideas.

Notable deals in early-stage digital health? aware.app, clue

Which geographies do you invest in? Europe

Ada Ventures

What’s your typical check range? £400,000-2,000,000.

Who’s the best person to contact for an initial reach out? Check Warner

What areas of digital health do you invest in? And don’t invest in? Ageing, health equality. Software led approaches mainly although we have invested in therapeutics and hardware. Need to see a path to get to market in 12-18 months.

What’s the number 1 thing you look for when it comes to deals? Path to rapid scale (particularly challenging in healthcare).

How many deals does the fund do in a given year? And what % of these would be in healthtech/ digital health? 10 - 30%.

The fund’s secret sauce? Inclusive fund, focused on funding a fairer future. Pre-seed specialists, helping companies expand internationally, particularly US.

Notable deals in early-stage digital health? Micrographia Bio, Oxford Medical Products.

Which geographies do you invest in? UK only.

Amino Collective

What’s your typical check range? $200k - 1.5M

Who’s the best person to contact for an initial reach out? Manuel Grossmann - manuel@aminocollective.com

What areas of digital health do you invest in? Thesis-driven approach across health and bio.

What’s the number 1 thing you look for when it comes to deals? Strong bias for founders creating and winning a new category.

How many deals does the fund do in a given year? And what % of these would be in healthtech/ digital health? 7-10 investments and 100% in health and bio.

The fund’s secret sauce? Picking winners early.

Notable deals in early-stage digital health? Vira Health, Aware, Vital, Kenbi...

Which geographies do you invest in? Europe and US

Elaia

What’s your typical check range? 300k-15m€

Who’s the best person to contact for an initial reach out? Gabriel Franz (gfranz@elaia.fr) or Samantha Jérusalmy (sjerusalmy@elaia.fr)

What areas of digital health do you invest in? And don’t invest in? Software (from MD, to DTx, etc. 10+ deals in the space), no hardware.

What’s the number 1 thing you look for when it comes to deals? Value prop.

How many deals does the fund do in a given year? And what % of these would be in healthtech/ digital health? 15 deals a year, 20% in digital health.

The fund’s secret sauce? Diversity & expertise of investment team (PhDs, entrepreneurs, life science / finance / scientific backgrounds).

Notable deals in early-stage digital health? Lynxcare, Tilak

Which geographies do you invest in? Europe + Israel

Firstminute Capital

What’s your typical check range? $250k-5m

Who’s the best person to contact for an initial reach out? rose@firstminute.capital

What areas of digital health do you invest in? All sectors

What’s the number 1 thing you look for when it comes to deals? Go to market

How many deals does the fund do in a given year? And what % of these would be in healthtech/ digital health? Approx 40 in a year, approx 5% healthtech (and growing)

The fund’s secret sauce? Top tier network, backed by over 120 unicorn founders as LPs.

Notable deals in early-stage digital health? Lindus Health, Nabla

Which geographies do you invest in? Europe, UK, USA

Form Ventures

What’s your typical check range? £200K-1M

Who’s the best person to contact for an initial reach out? mayowa@formventures.vc

What areas of digital health do you invest in? Software.

What’s the number 1 thing you look for when it comes to deals? Strong founding team.

How many deals does the fund do in a given year? And what % of these would be in healthtech/ digital health? 8, 3 in health.

The fund’s secret sauce? We help founders navigate regulation & public policy.

Notable deals in early-stage digital health? Peppy, Thymia.

Which geographies do you invest in? UK.

Heal Capital

What’s your typical check range? €2-3m

Who’s the best person to contact for an initial reach out? hana.besbes@healcapital.com

What areas of digital health do you invest in? And don’t invest in? Software that improves healthcare. 3 segments: 1) consumer-focused challengers rethinking the patient journey and improving patient outcomes; 2) B2B enablers to the incumbents from providers to payors to Big Pharma; 3) Deeptech with groundbreaking innovation at its core. We don't invest in Biotech and hardware-heavy Medtech.

What’s the number 1 thing you look for when it comes to deals? Scalability.

How many deals does the fund do in a given year? And what % of these would be in healthtech/ digital health? 5 deals/year and 100% healthtech

The fund’s secret sauce? Healthtech specialist VC fund and unique healthcare market access platform with direct access to the full healthcare ecosystem in the DACH region and Europe, for example, 20+ private insurances in Germany, major public and private hospitals like Charité and Sana, major medical associations and regulatory bodies, top-10 Pharma companies.

Notable deals in early-stage digital health? Avi Medical, Infermedica

Which geographies do you invest in? Europe

Hummingbird VC

What’s your typical check range? $500k-$10M

Who’s the best person to contact for an initial reach out? Lola Wajskop - lola@hummingbird.vc

What areas of digital health do you invest in? All.

What’s the number 1 thing you look for when it comes to deals? Exceptional founders.

How many deals does the fund do in a given year? And what % of these would be in healthtech/ digital health? 3-8 investments per year, over the last few years over half have been in bio and health.

Notable deals in early-stage digital health? Anima Health, Eka.

Which geographies do you invest in? Globally

Hoxton Ventures

What’s your typical check range? $1-5m

Who’s the best person to contact for an initial reach out? Rob, Charles or Hussein

What areas of digital health do you invest in? And don’t invest in? Anything in a new market category.

What’s the number 1 thing you look for when it comes to deals? Will it make us richer than Putin.

How many deals does the fund do in a given year? And what % of these would be in healthtech/ digital health? 2-6

The fund’s secret sauce? We're really fucking good at what we do and not that humble about it.

Notable deals in early-stage digital health ? Peptone

Which geographies do you invest in? European

IQ Capital

What’s your typical check range? £500,000-£8,000,000

Who’s the best person to contact for an initial reach out? Alex Wilson (alex@iqcapital.vc)

What areas of digital health do you invest in? And don’t invest in? All, as long as B2B.

What’s the number 1 thing you look for when it comes to deals? Technology differentiation / breakthrough

How many deals does the fund do in a given year? And what % of these would be in healthtech/ digital health? 10-20 total new investments, with 10-30% Healthtech

The fund’s secret sauce? >25 years of deeptech investing experience

Notable deals in early-stage digital health? Neurovalens, Optellum

Which geographies do you invest in? UK

MMC Ventures

What’s your typical check range? £1-9m

Who’s the best person to contact for an initial reach out? charlotte@mmc.vc

What areas of digital health do you invest in? And don’t invest in? We invest in data-driven healthcare, which has the potential to drive superior clinical outcomes. Our key theses/themes are broadly 1) Generation of personalised data sets for diagnostics and digital therapeutics 2) Infrastructure of healthcare including decentralised data 3) New operating systems to improve care pathways. See our blog here: https://mmc.vc/latest/mmc-ventures-focus-on-digital-health. We do not invest in pure hardware or therapeutics.

What’s the number 1 thing you look for when it comes to deals? Why is this opportunity best placed to be successful in driving better clinical outcomes within an acceptable timeline (next 3 years).

How many deals does the fund do in a given year? And what % of these would be in healthtech/ digital health? We do 6-10 deals per year (we are focused on tech) and expect 4/5 to be healthcare or selling into the healthcare ecosystem.

The fund’s secret sauce? We are research-focused (with a research team) and have a proactive deal sourcing methodology surrounding this. We have both a deep technology lens and a healthcare market lens - both theses need to be met for us to invest. We research both these things to make decisions.

Notable deals in early-stage digital health? Current Health (seed/series A investor which exited to BestBuy for $400m) and Sano Genetics

Which geographies do you invest in? UK.

Nina Capital

What’s your typical check range? 200,000 - 1,000,000 €

Who’s the best person to contact for an initial reach out? Marta Gaia Zanchi

What areas of digital health do you invest in? And don’t invest in? We invest across health technology, broadly, including all areas of digital health. We do NOT invest in biotech and pharma.

What’s the number 1 thing you look for when it comes to deals? A compelling and well characterized healthcare need.

How many deals does the fund do in a given year? And what % of these would be in healthtech/ digital health? 10 deals; 100% health tech.

The fund’s secret sauce? Strong understanding of and focus on healthcare.

Notable deals in early-stage digital health? Mindpeak ; The Lowdown

Which geographies do you invest in? Europe, UK, United States, Canada, Israel.

Octopus Ventures

What’s your typical check range? £1-10m

Who’s the best person to contact for an initial reach out? luke@octopusventures.com

What areas of digital health do you invest in? And don’t invest in? We will consider anything.

What’s the number 1 thing you look for when it comes to deals? Team.

How many deals does the fund do in a given year? And what % of these would be in healthtech/ digital health? 50, 20%.

The fund’s secret sauce? Our talent team.

Notable deals in early-stage digital health ? Big Health, Quit Genius.

Which geographies do you invest in? UK

Playfair Capital

What’s your typical check range? £150K - £1M

Who’s the best person to contact for an initial reach out? Jeevan Sunner

What areas of digital health do you invest in? And don’t invest in? We invest in all areas of digital health bar medtech and diagnostics.

What’s the number 1 thing you look for when it comes to deals? Founder-fund chemistry; it's essential that we see the vision so we can back it for the next 10-15 years!

How many deals does the fund do in a given year? And what % of these would be in healthtech/ digital health? 20 deals a year, roughly 20% healthtech.

Notable deals in early-stage digital health? Vinehealth, Qureight

Which geographies do you invest in? Europe.

Speedinvest

What’s your typical check range? EUR 500K - 3M.

Who’s the best person to contact for an initial reach out? Anybody from our health team!

What areas of digital health do you invest in? And don’t invest in? Broad scope within digital health. We typically don't invest in traditional medtech or biotech unless pure digital & data propositions.

What’s the number 1 thing you look for when it comes to deals? Brilliant teams tackling the biggest global challenges in health: outcomes, cost, access, data.

How many deals does the fund do in a given year? And what % of these would be in healthtech/ digital health? 3-5 health deals per year.

The fund’s secret sauce? Combination of sector-focused teams, pan-European presence and operational expertise.

Notable deals in early-stage digital health? Doccla and Seqera Labs.

Which geographies do you invest in? Predominantly European focus.

Triplepoint

What’s your typical check range? £500k-1.5mn

Who’s the best person to contact for an initial reach out? manuel.antunes@triplepoint.co.uk

What areas of digital health do you invest in? And don’t invest in? Clinic software, telemedicine software, R&D software, B2B2C software, B2B software

What’s the number 1 thing you look for when it comes to deals? B2B healthcare focus (not consumer / "consumerisation of healthcare", etc.)

How many deals does the fund do in a given year? And what % of these would be in healthtech/ digital health? 15. 30% health.

Notable deals in early-stage digital health? QuitGenius

Which geographies do you invest in? UK

Vorwerk Ventures

What’s your typical check range? €1-5m

Who’s the best person to contact for an initial reach out? vorwerk-ventures@vorwerkventures.com

What areas of digital health do you invest in? And don’t invest in? We invest in consumer facing digital health. We don't invest in pure B2B plays like hospital management software.

What’s the number 1 thing you look for when it comes to deals? Team.

How many deals does the fund do in a given year? And what % of these would be in healthtech/ digital health? 8 p.a., 1 in health

The fund’s secret sauce? We're exclusively focused on consumers / patients with long track record.

Notable deals in early-stage digital health (plz no more than 1 or 2)

Which geographies do you invest in? Germany

Voyagers Health Fund

What’s your typical check range? $100k

Who’s the best person to contact for an initial reach out? David Rowan

What areas of digital health do you invest in? And don’t invest in? Strong teams solving meaningful problems, any geography, any sector of health-tech.

What’s the number 1 thing you look for when it comes to deals? Outrageously ambitious talent.

How many deals does the fund do in a given year? And what % of these would be in healthtech/ digital health? First fund [no longer investing] made 12 investments a year; second fund [launching end 2022] will invest in 12-16 companies a year.

The fund’s secret sauce? Authentic and genuinely helpful community

Notable deals in early-stage digital health? Cerebral

Which geographies do you invest in? International

Two honourable additional mentions...

Lifeline

Typical check range: $0.5M - $2.5M

Contact: Petteri Koponen

Focus area: Deep tech & bio

Notable deals in early-stage digital health: OŪRA, Valkee

Kindred

Typical check range: $0.5M - $2M

Contact: Leila Zegna, Maria Palma

Focus area: Seed fund with Deep Tech & Health Tech

Notable deals in early-stage digital health: Gaia, Mojo, LabGenius, Ori Biotech

And a few excellent generalist seed investors who minor in health…

Ascension

What’s your typical check range? 150k-350k GBP

Who’s the best person to contact for an initial reach out? ala@ascension.vc

What areas of digital health do you invest in? AI drug discovery, Digital Pathology/Radiology, Digital Biomarkers, Pharma Supply Chain, Digital Therapeutics and Mental Health

What’s the number 1 thing you look for when it comes to deals? Traction

How many deals does the fund do in a given year? And what % of these would be in healthtech/ digital health? min. 10 (no fixed health number)

The fund’s secret sauce? Industry and ecosystem connections

Notable deals in early-stage digital health? Vine Health and Qureight

Which geographies do you invest in? UK

Eka

What’s your typical check range? £750k - £5m (£1.5m sweet spot for first ticket)

Who’s the best person to contact for an initial reach out? Estia (estia@ekavc.com)

What areas of digital health do you invest in? And don’t invest in? Two main areas: (1) well-being and social companies (addressing the determinants of heath), and (2) diagnostics and treatment companies who are using innovative technology-based solutions to improve care.

What’s the number 1 thing you look for when it comes to deals? How the company fits into our shared value thesis (https://medium.com/eka-ventures-writes/eka-ventures-our-thesis-15ed4fe75be1)

How many deals does the fund do in a given year? And what % of these would be in healthtech/ digital health? Roughly 8-10 per year, the % is variable but aiming to be roughly half of the investments (depends on the opportunities that come up).

Notable deals in early-stage digital health? Paired, Urban Jungle

Which geographies do you invest in? United Kingdom

Project A

What’s your typical check range? €1-10m

Who’s the best person to contact for an initial reach out? Mey Cezairli, mey.cezairli@project-a.com

What areas of digital health do you invest in? And don’t invest in? Investing in: Software, B2C, B2C, digital solutions for chronic conditions, data infrastructure innovation

What’s the number 1 thing you look for when it comes to deals? Stellar team: ideally one with medical background + one business/technical background

How many deals does the fund do in a given year? And what % of these would be in healthtech/ digital health? We do approx. 10 deals per year, 1-2 of these would ideally be healthcare.

The fund’s secret sauce? Project A supports its portfolio companies with a team of over 110 in-house experts in themes such as software and product development, business intelligence, brand, design, marketing, CRM, sales, venture development, or recruiting.

Notable deals in early-stage digital health? Kry & Unmind

Which geographies do you invest in? Europe

That’s all folks. And a reminder that if you don’t see your fund on the list - but you want to - you can submit the info here.