While Israel’s health tech scene continues to thrive, with new founders building solutions to address the most pressing global challenges in healthcare, there is one area that is sadly being overlooked . It’s a child.
In this article, we share some of the key findings from an in-depth analysis of Israeli startups that are building solutions that impact children and how they are leveraging the full potential of Israel’s healthcare system to further Focus on how to do many things.
1 View gallery
A child’s well-being typically involves multiple stakeholders, including parents, so it’s important to properly define the space.
This study only includes software-enabled products and services in which children receive care interventions. This often requires parental involvement, which is to be expected.
More importantly, we want to focus on all aspects of childhood, from birth to age 18.
This means excluding start-ups related to pregnancy, fertility, or where the parent is the primary recipient of the care intervention.
Finally, although there are many startups that have an impact on clinical situations and can also be relevant to children, we want to separate out startups that only target children.
Startup Insights: Challenges and Assessments Children Face
Since 2010, 44 separate startups focused on children’s health have been born in Israel.
Sixteen of these startups are confirmed to be inactive, and seven more may be inactive as well. In other words, more than a third of his startup companies have officially shut down.
Especially in recent years, the founding of new startups has been inconsistent.
From 2014 to 2019, about 5 new startups were stably created per year, but since then, there have been three years with no new startups (2020, 2022, 2023), and 7 new startups. There was one year when I was there.
This is in marked contrast to other sub-sectors such as mental health and aged care, which show the continued formation of new start-ups even in depressed markets.
Importantly, there are no startups in Israel that address the mental health of early adolescents and teens. This is unfortunate, as youth mental health is a major challenge that will only become more acute over the next decade. There are several established and emerging startups in the US and Europe that are building solutions to address this pressing crisis. Brightline, Little Otter, Daybreak, and Joon are just a few examples of startups taking on this challenge. Kanjo and BrightLobe are interesting new examples from Europe.
It is also interesting to note the number of startups building developmental solutions for early childhood and childhood. Almost all of these startups focus on either ADHD, autism, or speech pathology.
There is a difference in the types of products being developed in Israel compared to large startups in the US and Europe. Israeli startups tend to be narrow in scope, seeking to address specific clinical indications or specific aspects of care. This is not to say that Israeli startups have a lower chance of survival, but it reflects the general trend of Israeli health tech startups and how the Israeli healthcare system supports startups. This is the result of what you do. This is a characteristic of Israeli health education that manifests itself in all areas of care.
Major U.S. startups are also building business models tailored to the structure of the U.S. health care system. Brightline, which has raised more than $200 million, has built its product around employer insurance, which covers most working-age adults. Employers typically offer their employees plans that include coverage for their children, and Brightline integrates with these plan offerings. Daybreak, which has raised $25 million, has a unique model that incorporates schools and generates revenue from both insurance claims and contracts with school districts.
Start-ups in Israel need to be especially aware of how the healthcare system works with regard to children.
Of the 44 startups, 19 successfully raised funding, with $193 million in publicly available funds. One of these companies raised capital in the public market through an early listing.
Two startups (including a publicly traded company) accounted for more than $134 million in capital, or approximately 70% of the total capital raised.
When benchmarked against other sectors in health tech, public data shows that child health is perhaps the least funded sector.
The children’s healthcare sector has one of the lowest funding rates per startup and one of the highest ratios of funded to unfunded startups.
Additionally, the children’s healthcare sector relies heavily on crowdfunding, with only three startups raising money from traditional Israeli investors. Only one company raised money from traditional health tech investors.
Maximizing the potential of Israel’s healthcare system
Children’s health is perhaps the biggest focus for startups, as Israel’s healthcare system offers unique benefits that can help build solutions to global challenges affecting children’s health. It’s a missed opportunity.
The Israeli healthcare system places great emphasis on general practice and pediatrics (commonly known in Israel as a “family doctor”). Pediatric well-child exams occur frequently and include multiple touchpoints, including routine vision and dental evaluations. This provides a large number of data points from birth to adulthood.
Israel is a nationalized and regulated market system, so all children have access to the same services. Additionally, Israel has a remarkably broad demographic distribution, spanning multiple ethnic groups and religions. This creates a universal baseline around solutions that address child health equity.
Israel has its own data set on children, but it is largely unused. For example, “Tipat Harav”. Tipat Halav (“A Drop of Milk”) is a national system of community health centers for newborns and young children that provides routine growth and development screenings, immunizations, and hearing/vision/communication tests. Tipat Khalaf has touched literally every child born in Israel since 1948, tapping into a treasure trove of potentially relevant and untapped data. Although this data finally became accessible to Israel’s broader health system in 2017, its full potential has yet to be exploited.
After all, the greatest potential of Israel’s healthcare system lies in continuity of care. Digitized data exists on every child in Israel going back 30 years, creating a robust dataset spanning the entire period of childhood. We envision the possibility of incorporating monthly growth data, vaccination data, full panel genomics, pediatrics, and even environmental data…
Getting to this point will require work on the infrastructure, consolidating disparate digitized data silos, cleaning and scrubbing, and making data more accessible, but the potential is It exists and is largely undeveloped.
Significant untapped potential exists for Israeli startups that want to address gaps in childcare. Unfortunately, this potential has not yet been realized, additional infrastructure work is required to realize this potential, and holistic aspects of care are also being overlooked.
Given the data aspect of the Israeli healthcare system, Israeli startups in this field should seek collaboration with major incumbents such as Brightline, Little Otter, and DayBreak. Israeli startups can leverage the Israeli healthcare system for clinical validation of additional capabilities, while established companies can provide business model insight and proven market access.
From an investor’s perspective, child health is an area that does not receive significant financial support. For investors to focus on this space, founders need to build more robust solutions with a deep understanding of how to integrate into international healthcare systems, especially the US healthcare system.
Hopefully, in the coming years, new startups will emerge that properly leverage the Israeli healthcare system to build unique solutions that address the major challenges that children will face in the next decade. .
Yoav Fisher is Head of Innovation and Digital Health at HealthIL and an early-stage health technology investor at ANOVA Ventures.