Health Meets Innovation: Startups for Impact and Growth in the Ruhr Region (Startup-Verband)

Summary

• 65% of founders in the health sector see societal benefit as a central part of their founding motivation, compared with 38% in the whole startup ecosystem; among Digital Health startups the figure is 69%.p.3
• In the last five years, $6 billion was invested in health startups in Germany, versus $213 billion in the USA.p.6
• Of the 70 health startups identified in the Ruhr region, Digital Health makes up 46%, Medtech 29% and Biotech 26%.p.8
• Biotech and Medtech startups emerge over half the time (54% in the chart) in the environment of universities or research institutions, and a third are direct spin-offs.p.11
• Emergence Therapeutics, based in Duisburg, secured an 87 million euro Series A round in December 2021, the second-largest Series A in German biotech.p.15
• Handling regulatory requirements is a central challenge for 30% of Digital Health startups and 39% of Biotech and Medtech startups.p.16

Key insights

1. In the USA, per-capita investment in health startups is 9 times higher than in Germany, and founding numbers are higher by a factor of 3.p.3
2. BioNTech had a market capitalisation of almost 40 billion US dollars as of May 2022.p.6
3. 19% of venture capital invested in Europe over the last five years went into health, versus 14% in Germany.p.6
4. Health startups in the Ruhr region are concentrated in Dortmund, Bochum, Essen and Duisburg.p.8
5. German pharma industry spends 8.5 billion euros a year on R&D and the medtech industry around 3 billion euros.p.11
6. Germany's DiGA fast-track allows a 12-month trial phase, and 19 of 31 existing DiGAs are provisionally listed.p.17
7. More domestic venture capital for health innovation and stronger early-stage financing are needed to close the gap with the USA.p.23