EIT Health Catapult is on a mission to boost innovation in the rapidly-developing life sciences and healthtech markets, and has super success stories to get inspired by. Applications for its 8th edition are now open!
Now in its 8th year, EIT Health is once again looking to support impactful healthtech innovation through its Catapult Competition.
The pan-European competition has supported 273 companies since 2016, providing participants with the chance to access skill-building, cash and industry prizes, as well as visibility and credibility within EIT Health’s impressive network.
The mission is to nurture a new generation of health-related companies and future game-changers in this impactful industry, actively contributing to improved outcomes for patients and citizens in Europe.
Applications for the 8th Edition of the EIT Health Catapult Competition are now open until May 2nd! As for the 7th edition, the finalists who will compete on 20th June can be discovered here!
There will also be an info session taking place on April 18th – register here.
Pau Rodríguez, CEO Methinks, Winner Digital Health category 2020: “If there is one event you should apply for in Europe, it’s definitely this one. The training was far beyond any programme I had been in before.But the most important is the reputation, as after winning the competition, several funds reached out to me”
The EIT Health Catapult: How it works
EIT Health Catapult boosts the development of European startups from the life sciences and healthtech space over the period of one year.
In the first step, the 8 EIT Health regions select their winners from the life sciences and healthtech categories. This brings 30 companies to the programme’s semifinals.
The semifinals then run in 2 categories as a mix of virtual and on-site events. The selected 30 each get:
- Individualised feedback from top-tier industry execs
- Help to sharpen their business plan
- Connections with investors across Europe
- A get-together event in Tel Aviv to meet with local VC and health corporate ecosystem
Following the one-to-one sessions, the startups each pitch in front of a carefully selected investor jury in the semifinal online pitch event.
Luc Henry, Co-founder and CEO of Limula, Finalist Biotech Category 2021: “EIT Health Catapult is the best opportunity I was ever given to improve my pitch. It looks like a competition, but in fact, it is an incredible mentoring program providing value across all aspects of company building“
The top 9 enter the Grand Finale!
Who should apply?
The Catapult is open to life sciences and healthtech startups from across Europe. It’s dedicated to those looking to close their next late seed, Series A round of investment of at least €500k.
For the selected startups, it’s a chance to secure visibility, credibility, and a fast-track to investors.
The programme gives these high-potential startups a platform to showcase their business to investors, gain pan-European credibility, exposure, and connection to the vast EIT Health and Bits&Pretzels HealthTech network – the best ingredients to scale a healthcare business in Europe.
There are also eye-catching prizes and opportunities up for grabs:
- The winner takes home a €50k cash prize
- Industry prizes from a basket worth €1 million
- Collaborations with leading corporate players – you could even get displayed at Nasdaq tower in Times Square, NY.
The EIT Health Catapult Hall of Fame
After 8 years on the European startup scene, the programme has had some pretty great success stories over the years.
Of the alumni, 13 have been awarded with the EIC Accelerator, able to leverage the Catapult to their strategic advantage.
Gate2Brain, a Barcelona-based biotech startup, took part in the programme. The company aims to improve the transport of drugs to the brain using its peptide-based patented solution. They’ve since secured €2.5 million to advance the preclinical regulations of their flagship product, G2B-002.
Founder and CEO Meritxell Teixidó: “Our virtual coffees with Dirk Groenenwegen were an excellent brainstorm exercise about how Gate2Brain could achieve a broader impact and approach pharma companies to use our technology with their candidates of different modalities.”
In addition, two winners of the 2020 competition reached an exit less than one year after their big pitch: PhagoMed (acquired by BioNTech) and Patchai (acquired by Alira Health).
Alexander Belcredi CEO of PhagoMed: “We matured with each stage of the EIT Health Catapult journey. Getting feedback, mentorship and having the ability to see your peers and how they present themselves and what you can learn from them, is extremely important. Getting international visibility and exposure to the international networks was equally crucial, since as a small company like us generating exposure is time consuming and costly. Our pitch during the Catapult 2020 finals was a very successful day, that led us on a path to continue fundraising, which ultimately turned out into an acquisition by BioNTech.”
Alessandro Monterosso, Co-founder and CEO Patchai: “EIT Health Catapult helped us to clarify our value proposition and make sure the core message of our innovative approach to engage patients in clinical trials gets across the audience.”
