Doctor and entrepreneur duo’s accelerator aids health-tech start-ups

A doctor and entrepreneur team have doubled the value of nine health-tech start-ups in less than a year by taking them away from the NHS into other healthcare economies and private sector organisations.

The ‘HS.’ accelerator, founded by Dr Alex Young and Dr James Somauroo, saw the impact of its first programme boost the overall valuation of the start-ups from £6.6 million to £14.4 million.

The accelerator works with predominantly UK founders, start-up teams, health providers and corporates, operating in areas such artificial intelligence (AI) and personalised healthcare, with plans to launch sites in the United States and Singapore in an attempt to establish an international footprint. The idea came about when the two doctors felt they could accelerate technology adaptation by helping young businesses validate their products earlier.

The HS. founders are working in partnership with over 30 organisations – including, the Department of International Trade and Orthopaedic Research UK – to develop custom growth programmes around each of the young businesses and to put start-up innovations in front of patients at the earliest opportunity.

Co-founder and CEO at HS. Dr Alex Young, said: “Both James and I have experience working on the frontlines of the UK health system, as well as insight into scaling businesses and navigating healthcare systems, globally.

“Our vision was to take that knowledge and redesign the traditional accelerator model for developing an idea from inception and scaling it into a viable health company that solves a validated pain point while delivering value to a patients and health providers."

Co-founder and chief product officer at HS. Dr James Somauroo, said: “Given the impact we’ve had this past year, we’re thrilled to be opening up our second call for the best health-tech talent in the UK and beyond.

“As doctors, HS. has enabled us to scale our impact beyond the patient care we delivered previously. The ambition for us, our partners and our wider ecosystem, is to establish the UK as a hub of excellence for health-tech and position HS. as the biggest and most impactful health-tech accelerator globally.

“We can only achieve this by putting founders and patients first.”