The UK’s top health tech startups wrapped up 2024 with a combined valuation of £32 billion, with the fast-growing sector defined by strong investment, high-impact innovation, and a growing herd of unicorns.

Fresh research from Beauhurst and the Startup Coalition found that the UK health tech scene is booming, with startups raising a combined £27.4 billion in capital, and the average firm securing £9.6 million, as well as attracting £865 million in grant funding.

The Startup Coalition’s HealthTech Index reveals what the tech campaigner called a mature and dynamic ecosystem employing almost 30,000 people, with 168 firms from the Index having achieved an exit, while just 61 firms have failed.

Among those, biopharmaceuticals are by far the most well-funded and valuable health tech segment. The 276 startups in this space accounted for over a third (36%) of the sector’s total value last year, and have attracted the lion’s share of investment – almost £12 billion.

Last year saw some major VC deals for UK biopharmaceutical firms, including Ottimo Pharma raising over £104 million in a Series A round in December, along with Pheon Therapeutics securing £95.7 million at Series B earlier in the year.  

That biopharma surge has carried into 2025, marked by a more than £333 million Series A raise from Verdiva Bio, a new entrant in the weight-loss therapeutics space.

Meanwhile, coming a distant second place, the 138 UK biotech startups appearing on the Index have managed to raise £3.3 billion, while the 95 digital health firms secured £2.8 bilion, although these businesses punch above their weight in terms of jobs created, accounting for 17% of all those employed by Indexed firms – more than 5,000 people. 

Conversely, and perhaps surprisingly, those health tech’s focused on AI and data analytics raised just £1 billion up to the end of 2024, with a valuation of only £1.4 billion.

That puts the UK’s health tech industry at odds with almost every other technology sector, with research showing that AI startups captured a quarter of all UK VC funding last year.

Despite the strength of UK health tech, Startup Coalition report makes it clear that the country cannot be complacent, and that policy change is needed to help these startups succeed. 

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Among the changes the report calls for is NHS procurement reform that can realise the full potential of innovative solutions, rather than favour incumbent providers, with Startup Coalition arguing that existing NHS-backed accelerator programmes should be scaled-up to provide better support for startups beginning to navigate the healthcare landscape.    

“HealthTech is already one of the UK’s great strengths,” said Dom Hallas, Startup Coalition executive director.

“The Index is just the start of a new programme of work here at the Startup Coalition, to crack through the policy issues that matter most to HealthTech startups – fixing NHS procurement so startups can actually sell to the system, making public sector accelerators fit for purpose, unlocking spinouts, and so much more.”  

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