After 400 applications received and 50 companies auditioned, 21 start-ups were selected to join the first class of French Tech Health20. © Getty — ipopba/iStock
As part of the France 2030 plan, 7.5 billion euros have been earmarked for health “to make France the most innovative and sovereign nation in health in Europe”. This requires the digital transformation of the sector, but also through innovations developed by start-ups. To get the most promising of them off the ground, the French Tech Mission launched Health20 a few months ago, a support program that is a variation of Green20 (environment), Agri20 (agriculture) and DeepNum20. (breakthrough innovations in digital, electronics or even robotics).
This Friday, March 24, 2023, the government announced the winners selected to form the first promotion of this new index, during a visit by Jean-Noël Barrot, Minister Delegate for Digital, to the PariSanté Campus. After 400 applications received and 50 companies auditioned, 21 start-ups were selected.
Follow the Doctolib example
These are evolving in the fields of digital health (7), infectious and emerging diseases (4), biotherapies and bioproduction of innovative therapies (4), biomedicines and innovative medical devices (6). Winners include Aqemia, an AI-powered drug discovery platform, Epilab, a company that offers a portable tuberculosis diagnostic test, and Nosopharm, a company specializing in research and development. development of new anti-infective drugs.
With this program, which will allow selected start-ups to benefit from the support of the competent State services for a year, the government hopes to propel new champions in health, like Doctolib, a French start-up better valued (5.8 billion euros) after raising half a billion euros last year. If the Health20 only highlights about twenty innovative players in health, there are more than 2600 start-ups in France which are developing new products and technologies to give life to the health of tomorrow, according to the Panorama France HealthTech 2022.