Healthtech Investment Associate at Sagona Capital

Isabelle Perche

Sagona Capital is an award-winning global venture capital firm investing among other sectors in the Healthtech arena. Scaling early-stage firms, we are suitable to direct investments, co-investments, and follow-on funding. We are focused on companies dedicated to innovative technologies including medical devices, robotics, diagnostics, data science, drug delivery, digital health, and tech-enabled services.

But which reasons motivate us to invest in the Healthtech industry?

The first good reason, in terms of business opportunity, the global medical devices industry is expected to reach a valuation of $612.7bn by 2025, growing at 5.4% CAGR, and the European medical technology market is estimated to be worth more than 120 Bn€.

As an investor in health tech, all types of innovation that enhance patient care and reduce costs should be embraced. But it is also recognized that venture capital tends to be high-risk, reason to be selective in our approach, identification, and choice.

The healthcare landscape and environment are changing and denote a shortage of clinical staff and medical services. Holistically, we notice medical desertification not only in remote regions but increasingly across all cities and countries. Addressing this growing trend and issue through our funding appears as a motivating challenge.

What could it help the Healthcare system solve these challenging medical problems? How our action could participate to reduce the strain on already-stretched resources to achieve better patient outcomes and facilitate companies’ development?

We are driven by the will to provide, facilitate and improve access to care but also to faster the diagnostic and the treatment delay for worldwide patients. We think that medical technology can be envisaged as an alternative to finding solutions to the inevitable pressure on healthcare services.

"We think that medical technology can be envisaged as an alternative to finding solutions to the inevitable pressure on healthcare services"

The necessity driven by the pandemic has encouraged faster and more frictionless adoption of technology. Consultations moved online enabling remote consultations, monitoring technologies, and long-term patient management for chronic diseases. 

Thanks to the pandemic, Telemedicine has exploded. The increasing demand for home healthcare services, monitoring patients and potentially treating their conditions at home are some of the key factors driving the great uptake of mobile technologies among both patients and healthcare professionals. We see an increasing number of products used by patients to self-manage their symptoms and increase their access to care and health equity. 

This move facilitating real-time data and complex tasks in reducing the time of patients’ management has been supported by healthcare professionals who recognize that only technology can effectively bridge the gap between increased medical demand and limited budgets. This approach should reduce the need for hospital or clinic visits and help healthcare professionals monitor, identify, and treat patients ensuring they get the care they need and when they need it.

The use of software and digital therapeutics such as apps for mobile devices, and the Internet of Things will provide bespoke health plans for each patient and should alleviate pressure on health services by enabling patients to manage symptoms themselves, leading to overall improvements in quality of life.

In a pandemic world where millions have experienced delays in surgery, this will become an increasingly important part of making patients comfortable while they wait for treatment. By investing in non-invasive technologies that can provide early diagnostics, we have faster patients care and ongoing disease management in a low-friction manner. The high growth of the adoption and demand in advanced technology such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, wearable health tech, extended virtual reality devices, and surgical robot technology will lead our investment selection.

Investors are tracking unmet healthcare needs and are influenced by the new wave of smart technology products, but improved patient care does not only lie in breakthrough technology. 

Advanced technology is pushing the boundaries of medical science but are we arriving at the limits of disruption?

We anticipate new technologies such as telehealth to face increasing scrutiny from regulatory authorities around the world for fraud and abuse by patients and providers. While the Healthcare system approves the convenience of remote consultations, without the immediate threat of a pandemic, clinicians are facing a backlash from patients who are frustrated at remote consultations and diagnostics. Patients express their need for real face-to-face appointments. The reality is that many chronic conditions simply cannot be identified over a telephone or video call, something specialists increasingly recognize.

We should never forget that tremendous efforts to substitute conventional medicine with new technology as AI or Virtual Reality do not modify the final situation. For many diseases, a patient is lying in a bed who needs comfort, safety, and less invasive treatments and hopes to get quick healing and recovery. Technology disruption should not be considered the absolute Alpha and Omega solution to enhance patients’ outcomes. Targeting repair and preservation options as single-use medical devices or treatment to accelerate wound healing could also be tailored for each individual and often represent a wide array of improvements impactful enough to amount to a real business.

In parallel, a healthy population requires a healthy economic system. Apart from just providing funds, our vision is also to offer guidance and mentorship to every portfolio company throughout its lifecycle. Beyond the new trend for the fund’s platform recognized to be incredibly helpful in the early days, our specificity is to integrate a personalized touch with our cross-border bridge on both sides of the Atlantic.

With our extensive network, we provide valuable insights and connections that help firms to implement their activity in a new landscape supporting them in their family requirements and daily activities in addition to the business strategy, recruitment, marketing, sales, and corporate development.

While the pandemic shows us that predicting the future is a risky business, we can easily envisage that major new technologies are emerging across the healthcare system, and we want to be part of this groundbreaking development.