These 20 promising canadian startups are building innovative healthcare solutions.
When it comes to activating impact capital in the healthcare industry, fostering investing is just as important as and complementary to growing a national community of impact investors.
That’s why we teamed up with the TELUS Pollinator Fund for Good to bring you the Health Impact Investor Challenge.
Throughout the application process, we have seen many incredible entrepreneurs from across Canada applying to the program for a chance to hone their fundraising skills, better quantify their impact, and ultimately win $100,000 in investment.
And after a few months of analysing and evaluating all these amazing healthcare ventures, it’s time to find out which impact startups were selected into the Health IIC 2022 Top 20!
Also represented are ventures undertaking exciting innovations in mental health, care delivery, digital health, medical devices, and more. Within the top 20 startups, 40% are founded by women while 50% are BIPOC-led, with a national representation with companies from BC, Alberta, Ontario, and Quebec.
If you’re interested in investing in any of these healthcare companies, you can join the investor’s cohort in the Health Impact Investor Challenge to navigate the investment process, build your network with like-minded investors, and invest in an up-and-coming Canadian healthcare startup.
Meet the Top 20 Startups
A.I. VALI INC.
A.I. Vali uses Machine Learning (ML) and Deep Learning (DL) techniques in real-time to analyze the physicians’ voices during the procedures, and data collected from medical images, such as endoscopy video images, tissue biopsy specimens, and MRI/CT scan images.
Their modular A.I. platform, AIDREA empowers their clients with accurate, reproducible, and affordable real-time analysis, at the global level. AIDREA has a critical impact on the quality of analysis and early detection of diseases such as cancer in order to provide the best-personalized treatment model for each patient.
Reya Health Inc.
Reya Health is a company founded by a birth control user for other birth control users. After experiencing years of gruelling trial and error trying to find a suitable contraceptive, Reya’s founder and CEO set out to change the way we approach our search. Too often birth control is seen as a “one-size-fits-all”. Of course, we are not all one size.
At Reya, they put the individual user at the center and create a personalized experience to guide them through their birth control journey. They want everyone using contraceptives (hormonal and non-hormonal) to have personalized and reliable information to make informed decisions for their unique situation.
ConnectionPoint Systems Inc
ConnectionPoint Systems is the premier platform for collaborative funding. We help causes, corporations, and communities work together to fund impactful projects. Through our brands, FundRazr for nonprofits, and CoCoPay for healthcare payments, we have raised more than $250M through 200k+ campaigns in over 100 countries.
Honours include BCIC New Ventures’ Social Innovation Prize, BC Tech’s Most Promising Startup, and Vancouver Economic Commission’s Award of Excellence for Business Innovation Technology.
Flutter Care
Flutter Care is building life-saving technology to predict and prevent pregnancy complications through education and remote health monitoring. Their patent-pending technology protects both the parent and the baby. Their vision is to protect the safety, health, and autonomy of every expectant individual on Earth.
Flutter Care was founded by Dolma Tsundu, an engineering graduate and certified doula, whose mother experienced two complicated pregnancies – one of which nearly caused her mother to lose her life. These experiences have had lifelong impacts on her and her family.
BioTwin
BioTwin delivers actionable innovations that can generate real impacts. They bring together a multicultural team (8+ nationalities, 6+ languages) of meticulous data scientists, dedicated experts in biology, and consumer-centric business innovators to tackle the most important challenges in wellness and healthcare.
MindfulGarden Digital Health
MindfulGarden is working in a regulated medical device space and takes an evidence-based approach to user-centered design and development. The company currently has completed two clinical studies on hyperactive dementia in a long-term care setting and has two pending studies on delirium in the ICU beginning in Fall 2020.
VoxCell BioInnovation
VoxCell BioInnovation is a biotech start-up using 3D bioprinting technologies to solve complex challenges. VoxCell is developing human-like cancer tissue models for reliable preclinical testing. Their tissue models contain vasculature, mimicking the delivery of anti-cancer therapies like in the human body. Their technologies have the potential to accelerate the drug development process and reduce the number of animal models used for drug testing.
Combined with their proprietary software, they are able to print tissues with vasculature for more meaningful in vitro testing. This process occurs only at the focal point of the laser (the voxel, hence VoxCell), allowing for printing anywhere in the polymer, including within structures, unlike traditional extrusion-based 3D bioprinters.
Tochtech Technologies Ltd
Tochtech Technologies is an award-winning digital health tech company whose mission is to build smart, cost-effective senior care solutions that offer caregivers peace-of-mind while enabling seniors to live healthier and safer lives. Based in Vancouver, Canada, Tochtech’s philosophy centers around the use of technology to eliminate the risk and sense of disconnect for seniors, especially those living independently.
Tochtech has developed first-in-class solutions in the areas of stove safety, voice-integrated personal aides, and a risk predictive smart care platform. Using voice integration, AI, and proprietary algorithms, these products enable caregivers to provide proactive, personalized care to extend older adults’ ability to live a healthy and longer life.
Daara Nano Biosense
Lime Health
Lime Health works closely with healthcare organizations by offering an end-to-end patient relationship platform to improve the quality of care and healthcare services. Their HCAPS and Accreditation Canada survey tools allow organizations to get instant feedback, measure impact of process changes, and quickly act on improvements.
Innerme
Innerme is a free platform that uses the key innovation of “patient-reported outcomes” (PROs) to improve remote monitoring and management of chronic diseases. Starting with Chronic Rhinosinusitis (CRS).
The goal with innerme is communication. To break down communication barriers through privacy-focused health tracking and sharing. Empowering patients to gain more insight and control over their health and giving healthcare providers an innovative tool to better engage with their patients and deliver more personalized care.
Better communication leads to a better healthcare system which leads to healthier people.
HealthQb Technologies Inc.
Usha International
Usha International is a companion app for sisters in Emerging Markets that serves as a family Gynaecologist in their pocket. The app provides support throughout pregnancy and motherhood, in countries where miscarriage rates are high, and not having a personal connection to a doctor can determine whether you can access obstetric care when you need it the most.
Their mission is to empower women to take control of their own health and well-being and give them the resources to positively impact their children’s health. Women in emerging markets lack appropriate health literacy and face problems such as hidden hospital fees, widespread health misinformation, and limited access to doctors.
Mommy Monitor
Raft Digital Therapeutics
Raft Digital Therapeutics is a digital rehab start-up making medically necessary pediatric rehabilitation exercises engaging and engrossing by delivering rehab in an immersive, story-based video game.
By making video games that use active movement to drive in-game character control they make rehab fun, to make sure it gets done, which improves outcomes for patients and those who fund their treatment.
HQ: Calgary, Alberta
ImaginAble Solutions
ImaginAble Solutions creates assistive devices to improve the quality of life for people living with disabilities. ImaginAble’s lead product is Guided Hands, an assistive device that enables people living with limited hand mobility to write, paint, draw and use touch-screen devices. Recent Canadian winner of the James Dyson Award, Guided Hands is patent-pending and has been used by over 350 health professionals and customers across North America and Singapore.
Their mission is to innovate assistive technology to help customers regain their passion, independence, and self-expression so they can live the life they have always imagined.
Difinity Solutions Inc.
Ginger Desk
UVX Inc.
Precare
Interested in learning more about our Impact Investor Challenge programming or in applying for a future intake?
