Healthtech is booming in the Netherlands when it comes to the number of startups and the amount of funding. There are around 10.8 start-ups per million people, whereas neighboring countries such as Germany or France have 3.2 and 6.1 startups per million people. In addition, healthech was the most invested techsector in 2020 in terms of VC spend. It has seen a substantial increase in capital year-over-year until 2021, with a record breaking 1 billion euro that year. Even though it was not the most invested techsector in 2022 (just being surpassed by fintech + energy), it remains the leading sector over the last 20 years when it comes to the yearly amount of deals, with 74 deals in 2022.
Although the Netherlands is known for its fertile innovation ecosystems, the Netherlands has a hard time competing with European counterparts. It can be stated that the Netherlands is definitely not the “best in class” compared regionally, being easily surpassed by countries such as the U.K, Israel or Sweden. The Dutch ecosystem ranks only 6th in both the volume of healthtech investments raised per capita and in absolute numbers. Despite the several pain points causing this, such as the regulation and complexity of the Dutch healthcare system, we see really great, potentially sector changing companies in AI/ML, health platforms, telemedicine, biotechnology and pharmaceuticals.
We took a look at the startups and scaleups in the Dutch Healthcare sector and selected a list of the 20 most promising Dutch Healthcare: Top 20 Innovations. We looked at problem-solution fit, the product, funding, estimated worth, the used technology and the vision. The data used comes from techleap, dealroom.co or is delivered by the companies itself.
- pharmaceutical companies who develop new pulmonary drugs, so they can prove the efficacy of the drug by demonstrating the improvement through quantified measurements from a CT scan
- by med-tech companies developing innovative equipment and solutions for surgeries and interventions of lungs, so they these can be conducted more precisely in line with the specific patient’s case (personalized medicine)
- pulmonologists in hospitals working with AI software platforms to support them in personalized treatment plans.
Ksyos is a nationally operating digital hospital. With its 7,500 general practitioners and 4,500 medical specialists and paramedics, Ksyos offers high-quality medical care without waiting times, digitally where possible, physically where necessary. For the patient this means: no long waiting times, faster diagnosis and start of treatment. For the healthcare professional it means: more time for the patient, less work pressure, less unnecessary costs.
Patients can contact Ksyos for medical specialist care for low-complex complaints in the areas of sleep, cardiology, mental health care, dermatology, ophthalmology and obesity. With smart use of new technology, Ksyos makes healthcare faster, better and more humane.
Pacmed helps hospitals to get more health out of their hospital. They do so with AI
decision support on clinical data that helps to treat acute patients better and to reduce the pressure on personnel and capacity. Pacmed started in the Intensive Care Unit because of the urgent capacity challenges, high costs and large amounts of data in that department. Their first product Pacmed Critical supports in discharging patients timely and safely from ICU by predicting the risk of readmission and discharge for the individual patient based on data with hundreds of variables of tens of thousands of patients.
Pathology is crucial in the diagnosis of many diseases, such as cancer. If a doctor suspects cancer, a biopsy can be taken to assess the cells under the microscope. This assessment by a pathologist helps to make the best treatment plan. Pathology labs have relied on this method for over 150 years but are now facing several challenges:
- An increasing need for more accuracy and precision diagnostics;
- A growing workload due to an increase in the incidence of diseases;
- And a growing shortage of pathologists worldwide.
With the introduction of high-resolution imaging and artificial intelligence (AI), pathology labs are moving towards digital pathology. This digitization allows the field to use AI-based algorithms to support pathologists with several diagnostic tasks. Aiosyn develops AI-powered algorithms for cancer and other chronic diseases, which empower pathologists to make their work more accurate, reproducible, and efficient.
This transition towards digital pathology allows them to integrate their AI solutions within existing workflows, ensuring pathologists don’t have to wait for algorithms’ results. Aiosyn’s algorithms make an impact by improving the diagnostic process of complex diseases and supporting the best treatment planning.

