Stockholm is a hotspot for start-ups developing digital solutions for the changing healthcare landscape emerging globally. Emerging technologies and digital health has been one of Stockholm Science City core interests since 2012. Using the in-house knowledge and network an investigation on how many companies there are in the Stockholm County, the type of solutions they are developing, which end consumer(s) they are targeting was conducted in September 2018.
HealthTech is defined very broadly by WHO including e.g. pharmaceuticals, vaccines as well as procedures. Hence, the scope was further limited to require a digital aspect as part of the product or service provided. In addition, MedTech solutions targeting healthcare providers were excluded and only companies with less than 250 employees was considered. Hence, large global corporations with presence in Stockholm were not included.
From a database of 223 companies, 127 companies were identified as Digital HealthTech companies. Companies excluded had focused on e.g. wellbeing, training platforms, SportTech or provided a health service with no digital component.
In order to get a better overview, the identified companies were divided in to categories. The categorisation can of course be made in multiple fashions, we have chosen to keep it as simple as possible and at the same time provide categories enabling a quick overview of the product as well as the customer segment the companies are focusing on.
Classifying companies is a challenge due to limited available information about the company, to much information making the offering vague, as well as the fact that small companies might change their business offering over time. In addition, there are subjective bias when classifying and defining what categories to include.
However, the 127 HealthTech companies were classified in two different main categories; product solution and customer segment. These were in turn divided in three subdivisions each, see table below.
Product solutionApp Application for smartphone, used to access service and/or programDevice Hardware solution part of the service and/or productPlatform Service or product providing a joint solution multiple users
Customer segmentConsumer Solution(s) targeting both healthy individuals and patientsCompany Solution(s) targeting corporationsHealthcare Solution(s) targeting healthcare providers, schools as well as healthcare professionals
The result is presented in an infographic (pdf below) showing that Stockholm offers an eco-system of digital HealthTech companies exploring and developing products as well as business models ranging from consumer-based products and services to more complex platform solutions for consumers, companies and health care providers.
If you are interested in additional information, please contact Ylva Williams, CEO Stockholm Science City Foundation, + 46 702 227 834.