HealthTech Investor Summit

At our Summit last week, clinical trial participant Julie Verlinden shared her personal story of living with a spinal cord injury, and the life-changing effect of receiving an innovative implant from ONWARD Medical. After their keynote, our moderator Rogier Elshout sat down with Julie and Rob Nijs to have a chat about their thoughts on #healthtech #investment and #patient participation in the #innovation process 🫶 To stay tuned for news of next year's HealthTech Investor Summit, follow us or sign up to our newsletter 👉 https://lnkd.in/gHHivdPx   #HTIS24 #SCI #EmpoweringMovement #patientcentric

🌟 What an incredible second edition of the HealthTech Investor Summit! 🤩 We had 460+ people unite in Bruges this week from across the world (over 27 different countries!), including 97 of Europe’s most promising #healthtech #startups pitching their ideas to #investors from near and far! #HTIS24 - It’s been a blast! We can't wait to see the results, with these new connections fueling moonshots and transforming health through tech! 💥🚀 So many people helped make this event a reality and we can’t possibly thank everyone involved, but here's a huge #THANKYOU to a few of our champions: Thanks to the organizing partner MEDVIA: to Ann Van Gysel for her vision and commitment to health transformation; to Henk Joos and Rita Prota for their incredible organizational efforts and bringing people together; to Lindsay Nuytten for her eye for detail and practicals; to Amy LeBlanc for crafting all our communications; and to Isabelle Francois, Roel Smolders, Liz Renzaglia, Johan Lecocq, Lisa Bradshaw, Mara Long, Ines Verbaendert, Veronique Van der Elst, Walter Van der Eycken, Marc Ost and Sofie Desloovere for all their help - you really are a dream team! 🥰 Thank you to our fantastic host Rogier Elshout for keeping us all energized through the Summit with his great MC and moderation skills (the throwable mic was amazing)! 🎤 Shoutout to our the photography crew Kris Van de Sande and Arno P. for going above-and-beyond, with instant professional pics throughout the Summit and an Oscar-worthy aftermovie! 🍿🎥 Special mention to An De Cleyn for her creative idea of filming elevator pitches IN an elevator 🛗 and to Javier Muñiz for our stellar visuals 💫 Thanks to the tech crew from Broadkastr | Livestreaming for Businesses for keeping us all visible/audible, and to the wonderful venues Bruges Meeting & Convention Centre, Musea Brugge, Bruges Royal Municipal Theatre and Provinciaal Hof for hosting us! 🏰 Our sincere gratitude to all of our #Sponsors - this event wouldn't have been possible without your support! We appreciate it immensely! 🙏 To all of our wonderful speakers, pitching judges and Knowledge Partners; thank you for lending us your insights, expertise and helping us bring everyone together from near and far! 🫶 And of course finally, thank you to each and every one of our #attendees! To our pitching companies, investors, industry leaders... you are all part of making the dream a reality; transforming health through tech for the benefits of us all! 💙 We hope to see you all again in December 2025 for #HTIS25; the third edition of our Summit in Utrecht, The Netherlands! Stay tuned for news by signing up to our newsletter: https://lnkd.in/gHHivdPx Until then, wishing everyone a wonderful end to the year! 🌟

🤩 THAT’S A WRAP on the 2024 HealthTech Investor Summit! 🚀✨ A huge CONGRATULATIONS to the winners of the Pitching Awards! 👏 There were so many fantastic #healthtech innovations shared during the Summit, but these three wowed both the audience and our judges, and won gold in their categories: 🥇 Best Pre-seed Pitch: Thiru Kanagasabapathi from AIKON Health 🥇 Best Start-up Pitch: Cedric Constant from CERHUM 🥇 Best Scale-up Pitch: Ronja Müller-Bruhn from STIMIT AG A big thank you to our partner Comate Engineering & Design for making their fabulous 3D-printed trophies! 💙💛🤍 At the awards show, we also had a special announcement: next year’s edition of the Summit will be held in Utrecht, The Netherlands! Stay tuned for more news of #HTIS25! 🙌 As we wrap up this fantastic event with drinks and celebrations, we wanted to leave you with a final take-home message. This is a piece of advice for entrepreneurs that we’ve heard echoed time and time again over the past few days: 💪 Remember that your success as a company isn’t inevitable just because your product brings value to patients; Your end user is not necessarily the person who is paying for it. To succeed in healthtech you need to know your stakeholders and have a good business model. Then, you can convince investors, and together reach for the stars to transform health through tech! 🌟 #HTIS24

We had a cosy and candid conclusion to the Summit with a fireside chat, talking to three CEOs – Lars Grieten (Fibricheck), Ronja Müller-Bruhn (STIMIT), and Fausto Sbaiz (Medics) – about the challenges and triumphs they’ve faced while running their healthtech companies. Thanks to our fabulous moderator Rogier Elshout, we got some excellent personal reflections, but their main advice to other entrepreneurs hoping to bridge the ‘Valley of Death’ was: 🔥 “There is no easy route. You just have other walk it, be resilient, absorb the chaos.” - Lars Grieten 🔥 “Bring water (or something stronger); be prepared for pain. But when it all works, it is so rewarding.” - Fausto Sbaiz 🔥 “You don’t have to walk fast; you can take baby steps. But just keep going.” - Ronja Bruhn Some additional tips and insights: 💫 Fausto: “Plan for the worst.” and “You need to find the balance between focus and a willingness to change.” 💫 Lars: “What’s the value and who’s going to pay for that? It’s not always clear, and not always the same person.” [figure it out!] and [re: finding your investors]: “It’s like dating - make sure you date before you marry. You’re in it together. And that trust needs to be rock solid.” 💫 Ronja: “In the beginning, our product failed. But then I decided to go out there and share our idea and the problem with others and within a week we had a solution.” and “Our product had clear value for patients, but It wasn’t until we understood who is paying and what market to target that we finally got a good VC round.” and “2025 is going to be a great year if we just believe in it” Bonus nuggets of wisdom from the audience: 🌟 “I would recommend that every entrepreneur with a medical background to get an MBA. Because to develop healthcare solutions, we need to have people with backgrounds in both science and business.” 🌟 “If you ask for money, you’ll get advice. If you ask for advice, you’ll get to the money.” #HTIS24

How to win over a skeptic #investor? This was the intriguing focus of our panel discussion with investors from around the world, moderated by Bart Vandeweyer from PwC Belgium. Here was their great 'in-a-nutshell' advice for #entrepreneurs: 💡 Florian Denis (Elaia): "Be convincing" 💡 Jamie Lu (Digital Health Advisor): "Be authentic" 💡 Pierre Detrixhe (INVESTSUD): "Show the added value for society" 💡 Soyoung Park (1004 Venture Partners): "Bring your vision and show how you can impact the world" 💡 Nathalie Van Bruaene (PMV): "Trust and transparency" 💡 Laurent van Lerberghe (Ballas Invest and KELES): "Surround yourself with the right people" A few additional gems: 💎 “I think it’s dangerous to put all your eggs in one basket, but surfing on the wave of a trend – at least at the start) – can be helpful.” - Florian Denis 💎 “Trust in the CEO is key for an investor. Humility – the capacity to understand, to listen and take advice – is an important part of a partnership.” - Pierre Detrixhe 💎 “Accept failure. Failure is scary and frustrating, but if you’re going to fail: fail fast, learn from it, and then move on.” - Soyoung Park And from our great moderator Bart Vandeweyer: “Already at the start – plan your exit strategy.” #HTIS24

Great keynote by Christian K. Moldt from PwC with a really interesting take on how Mergers & Acquisitions help shape the #healthtech landscape! He opened with a personal story of a friend who had brain surgery. The surgery saved her life, but she was left wondering "What happens next? How do I make sure this doesn’t happen again?” 🧠 Christian argued that our current healthcare systems are fragmented, particularly in terms of health data, leaving patients adrift and alone in a complex landscape. Information is not broadly accessible, and even though there's a wealth of data with hospitals, pharma companies and research institutions, it often isn't shared due to fear of competition and regulatory complexities. His conclusion: "Healthcare isn’t just another industry. It’s personal. And M&A is one of the ways to close that gap. For every deal we make, there is a patient who’s life is going to change. M&A can be the engine driving that." His plea to the people in the room: "Innovators: your breakthroughs are key to this future – Collaborate, integrate and push the boundaries to ensure that the innovations reach the patients who need them. Investors: you hold the power to fuel this transformation – support companies that drive real change. Leaders: build systems that put people first." #HTIS24

Very interesting keynote by Anne DeGheest on building healthtech success in the US! She should know: she’s a pioneer in the space and says: “The companies I have helped launch have saved 10 million lives.” Results like that are why we’re all gathered here at #HTIS24! So what’s the number one criteria for #healthtech success, according to Anne? It’s the #team! Success takes a village and “A flexible mindset is key. Learn from feedback; adjust and correct. A CEO’s job is to listen – to the customer, and to the team.” A few other insights: 💡 “Your business model is everything in healthtech, and you have to look at this from the viewpoint of all of your stakeholders.” 💡 “The US healthcare system is a mess. It looks good from the outside, but from the inside, it’s a mess. We’ve been talking about value-based care for 20 years, but the criteria for a US hospital to use your product is not necessary a better patient outcome – it’s saving money.” 💡 “If you present a physician with a really cool product, but it takes the nurses an extra 20 minutes to use, they will kill you (gently).” 🫣

Kicking of the final day of #HTIS24 with a big announcement by Jan Wauters from Flanders Investment & Trade (FIT): 2025 is going to be a "Year of Life Sciences" in Flanders, with a special focus on #healthtech! 🦠🧬🌱 The year will involve a bunch of activities and events, including: ⭐️ A Belgian pavilion at the BIO International Convention in the US ⭐️ A delegations at the World Expo at Osaka, Japan ⭐️ Events with MEDVIA, like the next HealthTech Investor Summit In May, there will be the European Life Sciences week - a full week of roadshows and events, including Knowledge for Growth and BioEquity Europe! 🌍 Stay tuned for a great 2025! 😄

Check out these ELEVATOR PITCHES from some of the nearly 100 companies pitching to investors at #HTIS24! We've heard about so many great #healthtech innovations yesterday and can't wait for even more today – the final day of our 2024 Summit! Bring it on! 🤩

This afternoon at #HTIS24 has been choc-a-bloc busy with company pitches! We've seen dozens of absolute SUPERSTAR entrepreneurs pitch their creative innovations, ranging from smart surgery to healthy ageing, to better health practices and processes – so many ideas for how tech can improve health! 🙌 In parallel, we've all been levelling up our skills and knowledge with Educational Sessions on 'Strategies and Allies: Supporting Women Entrepreneurs' and 'The Wild Wild West: HealthTech in the US' - so many things to learn! Along with many partnering meetings and networking moments, all in all it has been an absolutely excellent day! Now on to the conference dinner! 😄 #healthtech #investment #startup #startupfunding #venturecapital #medtech #digitalhealth