This post is by Ville Koiste from the Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra
In addition to more than 250 startups, Arctic15 will gather over 150 investors, 55 media representatives including journalists from WSJ, Forbes, TechCrunch and tens of large corporations such as Bayer, 3M, IBM, Elisa, willing to meet innovative startups. It is expected that all together 1200 attendees will participate and that’s neither too much nor too few. This unique setting offers an excellent ratio of different stakeholders looking for synergies between each other.
On the opening day of Arctic15, Digital Health Track brings multiple health & life sciences categories together. Track offers six hours of high-quality stage programme, interesting workshops and Digital Health demo area, showcasing a selected group of health and life sciences startups.
Traditional health care organizations challenged by new entrants
As health-related information, such as patient records and health data, flow faster than ever, citizens are empowered to choose their care provider and participate more actively in the system. This opens up opportunities for startups, trying to fix health care challenges with new solutions. Digital Health Track offers a demo area with 20 interesting health and life science startups – check them out: www.arctic15.com/dht
But there are also many big companies that are seeing potential for new business in health care. Apple and IBM are organizing a joint-workshop about what they are bringing to the health industry. Come and get a feel for the latest solutions, such as Watson Health Cloud, HealthKit and ResearchKit. Workshop has only a limited amount of seats, so register as soon as possible: www.arctic15.com/workshops-registration/
In addition, Elisa, a listed Finnish telecommunications, ICT and online service company, has started to offer IoT solutions to its customers. IoT opens up opportunities for example remote monitoring and self-care solutions and at the Digital Health Track, Ville Takanen, Director of Technology, will tell us more about that. But public sector can create innovative care solutions as well. City of Hämeenlinna (Jari Numminen) will present their 24/7 virtual clinic and they’re also launching a very interesting project related to digital health – more about that on Tuesday.
Big and small, a winning combination
As markets are moving faster and faster, large companies are getting more excited about working with startups. Health care is not an exception and for example many pharmaceutical companies are looking for new products and service models as we’re moving towards value-based care, where only outcomes matter.
Bayer, one of the top 10 pharmaceutical companies globally, is supporting Digital Health Track and exploring health tech and life science startups. Company has its own accelerator Grants4Apps that is currently looking for digital health startups: “We look for health technology and IT solutions that can connect and empower patients and physicians – Mobile Apps, Services, Wearables, Medical Devices, Software, Hardware ,” says Jesus del Valle, Head of Bayer Grants4Apps Accelerator, who is attending Arctic15 and is one of our Digital Health Track speakers. “There are no boundaries to creativity. The Grants4Apps Accelarator creates an ideal environment to foster digital innovation in health care and is an excellent example of our engagement to open innovation”. Btw. Bayer’s accelerator accepts applications until May 31st, so act fast: www.grants4apps.com/accelerator. If you’re interested in pharma’s future perspectives, it might also be worthwhile to spend 20 min and listen to Claudia Karnbach, Bayer’s Head of Global Business Development and Licensing.
How to build a success story in health and life sciences? Just copy and paste?
As a part of our Digital Health stage programme, we have several interesting speakers sharing their stories and key learnings. About a month ago, a Finnish startup Onbone, the developer of novel casting technology material, completed a 10 million € funding round. Petro Lahtinen, COO at Onbone, shares their story from laboratory to international markets. Having an innovative product is always an excellent start, but Onbone’s example shows that during the journey also some luck, curiosity and right contacts were needed.
MeeDoc and its CEO Mikko Kiiskilä has many stories to tell, as they’ve been one of the key players in bringing telemedicine to Finland – now they’re moving to global markets. Just recently they raised 3,5 million € funding from XLHEALTH, a German Venture Capital Investor specialized in Digital Health startups. Partly due to this cooperation, we’re happy to see also XLHEALTH’s representative at Arctic15, as Guido Hegener, Partner at XLHEALTH, is participating in the investor panel.
Other speakers and panelists – don’t miss them out:
Tara Sharif, Managing Director Healthcare Investment Banking, WestPark Capital Inc; Marko Koistila, General Manager, GlaxoSmithKline Finland; Yilmaz Mahshid, Healthcare Analyst, Pareto Securities; Peeter Ross, Associate Professor at Tallinn University of Technology & eHealth expert at Estonian eHealth Foundation; Mikko Leino, Chairman of the Board & Founder, Datawell & Chairman of the Board, M1 Capital; Eric de la Fortelle, Venture Partner, Life Sciences; Seventure Partners; Johanna Mattson, Chief Physician, Helsinki University Central Hospital (HUCH) Cancer Center; Jani Ahonala, Board Chairman, Adelmann Healthcare Solutions; Madis Tiik, Senior Advisor, Sitra & Visiting Scholar, The Scripps Research Institute (USA); Donald Jones (video), Chief Digital Officer; The Scripps Research Institute; Teemu Arina, biohacker; Janne Huhtala, Nexstim
So if you haven’t registered yet, get your conference pass here tickets.arctic15.com and join this amazing group. Also some traditional Finnish delicacies are included – see you next week!
