18 start-ups announced as Pitchfest finalists

The finalists of Digital Health’s annual competition for the most promising startups have been announced ahead of the live finals at Rewired 2025.

Rewired Pitchfest offers innovative digital health enterprises the chance to pitch their ideas in front of a live audience of NHS leaders, investors and industry peers at the event which takes place at the NEC in Birmingham on 18-19 March 2025.

Applications for Pitchfest opened in May 2024 and closed in August, with a total of 85 start-ups entering the competition. The judging panel whittled down the entries, selecting nine entries from each category to progress through to the live finals at Rewired.

Winners will gain access to expert advice from CW+ and Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust’s CW Innovation team, and the potential to run a project at the trust.

Sponsored by healthcare PR agency Silver Buck, Pitchfest welcomes entrants in two categories: pre-revenue start-ups and revenue generating start-ups.

The Pitchfest 2025 finalists are:

Pre-revenue generating category

AirEmail – A startup on a mission to empower healthcare staff by efficient email management for enhanced productivity, patient care safety and staff wellbeing.

Ameet Bakhai, cofounder and chief executive of AirEmail, said: “Pitchfest is our chance to showcase AirEmail’s solution to reduce digital work stress for health care staff with email overload.

“We’re so excited to be recognised as digital game changers and look forward to meeting the crowd.”

Kanjo – This startup has built a pre-diagnostic tool for the early detection and screening of ADHD, Autism and their comorbidities.

Sophia Parvizi-Wayne, chief executive and cofounder of Kanjo, said: “Having spent the last year working alongside hundreds of clinicians, we know that right now in the UK there is a lot of work we need to do to support clinicians, patient’s on waitlists and those who need support before, during and after a diagnosis.

“Every day we are learning more about ADHD and autism and are at an exciting time to now help our services with the huge demand they have.”

Datum – AI-powered precision medicine engine that eliminates guesswork by analysing biological, environmental, and lifestyle data. Datum empowers clinicians with real-time, evidence-based insights to deliver truly personalised medications and help reduce errors.

Upskill.Health – Founded by NHS clinicians, Upskill is using technology to scale access to quality, on-the-job training for the maternity workforce, everywhere.

Andrew Darby-Smith, NHS anaesthetist and founder of Upskill.Health, said: “NHS maternity services face big challenges, with multiple national inquiries demanding that we need to deliver better on-the-job training to our workforce, but with increasing clinical demand, how can we help staff find the time to train?

“At Upskill, we’re combining mobile, AI and virtual reality technologies to provide NHS staff with bitesize learning that is available on-demand, in clinical areas and is designed to be completed ‘in the flow of work’.

“We’re thrilled to be a finalist for Rewired’s Pitchfest and share more about how we can get NHS staff the training they need, at scale.”

Genomate Health – Develops computational tools for personalised medicine with a focus on assisting physicians in making optimal personalised treatment decisions for each patient based on the complex molecular characteristics of human diseases.

Dr Istvan Petak, founder and chief executive of Genomate Health, said: “It’s an honour for Genomate Health to be named a finalist in the Digital Health Rewired Pitchfest 2025.

“Genomate is here to tackle one of the NHS’s toughest challenges: making cancer treatment decisions faster, smarter, and more precise. We’re excited to showcase how innovation can truly transform cancer care.”

MyOpNotes – A startup on a mission to use technology to automate aspects of clinical coding, increasing efficiency within the NHS. It offers an electronic patient record (EPR) plug-in which enhances clinical coding accuracy and efficiency in surgery.

Grant Nolan, cofounder and chief executive of MyOpNotes, said: “Accurate clinical coding is a top priority for NHS Trust currently, driven by the harsh financial climate they’re working within.

“We’ve shown MyOpNotes can help hospitals improve the accuracy and efficiency of clinical coding in surgery with dramatic effect. In one trust we improved the HRG in 50% of patients.

“The automation of clinical coding has helped the coding teams keep on top of the growing demands.

“As an NHS surgeon, I believe we urgently need to be designing health technology around clinicians. It’s exciting to be a part of Pitchfest 2025.”

Occi AI – An AI-driven patient information portal designed by two consultant ophthalmologists to streamline outpatient appointments and enhance patient understanding before their appointment.

Miles Parnell, chief medical officer at Occi AI, said: “Our AI driven patient engagement platform aims to improve clinic efficiency, reduce non-attendance and promote equality and diversity.

“We’re excited to have the opportunity to showcase our platform at the Pitchfest next year.”

Aisthesis Medical Ltd – This startup offers VIOSync, an AI-driven clinical decision support system engineered to enhance sepsis management in acute and critical care settings.

Asclepius MedTech Limited – This Leeds-based startup is developing Asclepius AI-OP, a remote surgical pre-operative assessment ‘fitness for surgery’ AI platform for use by hospitals.

Michael Morgan-Curran, chief executive of Asclepius MedTech, said: “Asclepius MedTech is delighted to have been selected as a Digital Health Rewired Pitchfest 2025 finalist for its medtech solution, Surgfit.

“Our innovative platform addresses unmet clinical and operational needs in surgical pre-operative assessment by providing an inclusive, accurate, and patient-friendly platform.

“Designed by a team of surgeons, clinicians and NHS managers, Surgfit enables more appropriate risk stratification and shared clinical decision-making.

“It allows hospitals to shift surgical pre-operative assessments into the community, improving productivity, patient flow, prioritising waitlists, and making services more affordable.

“Ultimately for patients, we aim to help hospitals deliver safer, more effective surgical care and faster recovery and discharge, while reducing the cost and environmental impact of hospital visits​.”

Revenue-generating category

ExR Education – Device agnostic virtual reality education platform, ExR co-develops and distributes immersive learning across the NHS accessible on all devices from mobile phones to high-end virtual reality headsets.

Jonathan Abbas, cofounder of ExR Education, said: “Through co-creation of immersive education in over 20 NHS trusts, we are already supporting workforce training, an area of growing need.

“I’m excited to present ExR, our free virtual reality education platform at Digital Health Rewired 2025, to generate further interest in the use of XR technology in healthcare education.”

Concentric Health – A digital consent to treatment application. Its cloud-hosted software integrates with EPR systems to transform the consent process by supporting patients to make truly informed decisions about their healthcare.

Chloe Fox, clinical operations lead at Concentric Health, said: “Seeing Concentric recognised as a Pitchfest 2025 finalist makes us immensely proud.

“Paper is still the mainstay of many consent processes across the NHS despite digital transformation initiatives in most other aspects of care. This leads to a litany of issues with a costly impact on efficiency, clinical safety, and patient experience.

“Concentric’s easy-to-use, clinician-led consent to treatment application is already transforming the way consent is managed across more than 25 trusts.”

Salutare – Cofounded by a professor of hepatology at UCL and a former Microsoft executive, Salutare creates software for healthcare providers so that patients do not get lost in the system.

Chris Dial, cofounder and chief executive of Salutare, said: “Thrilled to hear that we made it to the finals.

“It’s recognition of the hard work we’re doing with the NHS to help more than 1M patients get their blood tests done in central London and Coventry where 100k were previously turned away due to lack of paper forms.

“We give patients more choice where to go for tests, and we can move up to 40% of today’s NHS outpatient appointments out of physical clinics.

“This means hospitals can create more space for new patients currently on waiting lists and save 5% of their pathology budgets.

“Not to mention that paperless blood testing, digital follow-ups, and shorter trips for patients will make an important reduction in carbon and resource usage in the UK.”

Neon Health Solutions – This startup’s main aim is to positively affect waiting times, capacity and reduce inefficiencies with data analysation.

Kris Glover, managing director of Neon Health Solutions, said: “Neon Health Solutions is a small team with a focus on making operational management, transformation and change in the NHS easier and more collaborative.

“We are thrilled to have been selected as finalist for the Rewired Pitchfest and look forward to sharing our ideas and solutions.

“We have developed our solutions over the past six years with a mission to make planning and options modelling simple, low cost and without the need for external consultancy support.”

Daysix – A digital agency which develops tools for healthcare, such as the Trauma App, a real-time decision-support tool for clinicians treating critical trauma patients.

ZayaAI – This platform integrates AI-driven pathology models, a laboratory information system, and a telepathology diagnosis platform to streamline lab operations and support remote diagnostics.

Voda – A LGBTQIA+ mental health app.

MyMynd – A workplace digital health platform that enables employees to take control of their mental health and help employers align wellbeing efforts to organisational needs.

CliniNote – This startup has created a category of tools powered by AI that elevates the efficiency of data-related processes, providing top-quality data sets while not burdening clinicians with additional work.

A draft version of the Digital Health Rewired programme is available to view here. The event is free for those in the NHS and public sector. Private sector tickets are available from £495 +VAT.

Register now and book your accommodation early to secure the best rates.