Across the UK, a wave of technology startups is redefining the front line of healthcare, developing tools that promise to reshape patient experience and clinical efficiency within the NHS and beyond.
The backdrop for this innovation is an NHS under profound strain. The health service, one of the world’s most ambitious public health systems, faces mounting pressures from an ageing population, a rising burden of chronic illnesses, and the constraints of limited public funding. These challenges are compounded by workforce shortages and growing backlogs, creating an urgent need for solutions that can deliver care more efficiently and effectively.
The Startup Response
In response, a cohort of agile UK companies is stepping up, creating digital tools aimed at empowering clinicians and giving patients greater control. Their innovations align with a core goal of the government’s 10-year plan for health: shifting more care out of hospitals and into homes. The focus is not just on treatment, but on enhancing the entire care journey, from initial diagnosis and ongoing management to the fulfilment of prescriptions and long-term support.
Enhancing the Patient Journey and Clinical Workflow
A prime example is London-based Entia, founded in 2014. Its compact, connected Liberty device allows for finger-prick blood testing at home, analysing samples in minutes and sending results securely to clinicians. Particularly aimed at cancer care, such as monitoring for side effects like neutropenia, it seeks to improve quality of life by making monitoring more convenient and private, potentially reducing hospital visits. The company, which has partnered with institutions like The Christie NHS Foundation Trust and Pfizer UK, secured a £16 million Series A round in 2023.
In mental health, where waiting lists are a critical issue, startups are using AI to streamline assessment and expand access. Cambridge spin-out Psyomics, founded in 2015, uses its ‘beseen’ platform to apply machine learning to clinically validated questionnaires. This aims to map a patient’s mental health journey and identify personalised treatment pathways, freeing clinicians from repetitive administrative tasks to focus on therapy. Another key player, Ieso Digital Health, delivers online text-based cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), having supported over 145,000 NHS patients. Its structured approach also generates anonymised data to inform broader treatment pathways. Following its acquisition by Swedish firm Mindler in 2025, the combined entity aims to offer a comprehensive digital mental health platform within the NHS.
Remote monitoring is another area of intense activity. Huma, founded in 2011, has built a cloud platform that consolidates data from medical devices and wearables for remote patient monitoring, used by over 3,000 hospitals worldwide. Its value in spotting warning signs early was proven during the COVID-19 pandemic, helping to reduce infection risk and preserve hospital capacity. With over $300 million in total funding, including an $80 million Series D round in 2024, Huma is advancing an AI-driven platform to further shift care towards personalised, home-based models.
The digital approach is also transforming how we manage medications and access routine care. Glasgow-based Phlo, a fully approved digital pharmacy founded in 2021, integrates with GP surgeries for electronic prescription processing, offering patients free 48-hour nationwide delivery and real-time tracking via an app. Similarly, Healthera’s platform connects patients to over 1,700 pharmacies and NHS GPs for prescription management and reminders, processing around five million prescriptions in 2024 and aiming to digitise the vast majority of manual interactions.
For more direct consumer access, companies like Numan are tackling areas where stigma or inconvenience can be a barrier. Founded in 2018, its direct-to-consumer telehealth platform addresses men’s health issues like hair loss and erectile dysfunction, offering online consultations and discreet delivery. Having reached profitability and more than doubled its revenue to over $90 million in 2024, Numan is now expanding into women’s health and building out an AI-powered health coach.
Specialist support is also going digital. Peppy, founded in 2018, delivers employer-sponsored digital health services specialising in fertility, menopause, and family planning, connecting employees directly with experts. Claiming to be Europe’s largest gender-based healthcare benefits platform, it supports over 1.5 million people and used a $45 million funding round in 2023 to expand into the US market.
Powering Research and Enabling Services
The innovation extends to the very foundations of medical discovery. Causaly, founded in 2018, has created an AI platform that accelerates biomedical research by analysing millions of publications to uncover insights into diseases and drug targets. Used by 12 of the world’s top 20 pharmaceutical companies, including Novartis and Regeneron, its technology transforms research workflows. The company has raised over $93 million, plus an additional £46 million, and in 2025 launched new AI-powered tools for drug target identification.
Other startups are building the infrastructure that allows broader healthcare brands to operate digitally. Norwich-based Evaro, founded by NHS professionals in 2018, provides a white-label, fully regulated digital pharmacy and clinical platform. Via an API, it enables other brands to quickly offer consultations, prescriptions, and diagnostics, handling complex compliance with bodies like the CQC and GPhC. The company claims its services have already saved the NHS £11 million by reducing visits and assisted over two million patients, securing a $25 million Series A round in January 2025.
This surge in healthtech activity is reflected in the sector’s growth, with UK healthtech companies valued at £32 billion by the end of 2024. The landscape presents a pragmatic response to systemic pressures, where technology is being deployed not to replace the human element of care, but to support it—making every clinical interaction more informed, and every patient’s path to better health more manageable.
