A survey by pan-European tech startup accelerator Startupbootcamp has revealed that the growth in healthcare technology start-ups will be a major trend in the next five years. A survey of 115 technology entrepreneurs, mentors and investors has shown that in the shadow of well-known technology trends in big data solutions and cloud computing, healthcare technology is significantly growing in importance.
The survey was conducted in July and August 2012. The first part focused on the economic ecosystem for startups. The second part of the survey examined future trends and asked participants what they thought would be the three most important tech trends during the next five years. Most significantly 36% of participants believed healthcare technology would be almost as important as big data (47%) and cloud computing (37%).
While the growing importance of healthcare technology was clearly recognized by all participants, only 24% of investors in the startup community indicated that this is an area they usually invest in. However, 48% of investors- deemed it to be among one of the most important trends in the coming years.
“The results of our survey, which we ran with our partners AxiCom, may come as a surprise to many people even within the broader technology industry,” comments Alex Farcet, co-founder of Startupbootcamp. “When you take a look at technology media coverage, the growing importance of healthcare technology seems to go nearly unnoticed. Also, it is our impression that investors and financial institutions have turned a blind eye towards this sector, even those investing in technology generally speaking. Some people may be missing the boat here.”
In response to this trend Startupbootcamp launched HealthXL specifically designed to support digital health entrepreneurs, and on the 30th November in Dublin will run a weekend event, HXL Checkup, designed to bring together entrepreneurs, engineers, designers, scientists and doctors to collaborate on some of the key Health problems as identified by Industry leaders.
In addition HealthXL will co-host The Healthies 2012 in partnership with Global Corporate Venturing, Health Startups and Health2.0. The Healthies Awards dinner is an exclusive event to recognize leading innovators in Digital Health.
Only 17% of the startup community consider clean tech to be a major trend for the next five years though the topic clearly has got a lot of government attention and coverage in the media. Location based services (33%), enterprise mobility (25%), and social media (25%) score much higher than clean tech. In fact, only video (8%) and semantic web (16%) are expected to be less important areas of technological development than clean tech by the startups, mentors, and investors of the Startupbootcamp eco system. Human-computer interfaces are high on the list for 20% of respondents, gaming for 19%, and artificial intelligence for 18%.
Startupbootcamp (or “SBC”) is a start-up accelerator with a mentor and alumni network from 30+ countries across the globe. The acceleration program offers startups a chance to get intense exposure over the course of three months to industry experts who are available as mentors to startups as needed. Bundled with seed investment, free co-working space and plenty of sponsor deals, start-ups typically boast years of results in 3 short months. At the end of the programme, start-ups present at Investor Demo Day for hundreds of local and international investors. The programme currently runs quarterly during the year in Copenhagen, Berlin, Amsterdam and Dublin and only selects 10 startups to fund each cycle. The programme will also expand to Haifa this year.
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