As part of its Social Plan, Philips is releasing employees affected by the reorganization from work to participate in the HealthTechXL program. This makes the initiative essential to the technology company’s work-to-work initiatives to retain technical talent for the Brainport Eindhoven region. At the same time, in collaboration with partners, it further stimulates innovation in the medical field in the area.
“By exempting employees who have been affected by the reorganization from work and allowing them to participate in this program, we offer them the opportunity to take the next step in their career,” says Sylvia van Es, President of Philips Netherlands. “For example, by becoming a co-founder of a start-up. It can also provide an important boost for Brainport in general and the MedTech ecosystem in particular because in this way, we can retain technical talent for the region and because we also make existing intellectual property rights available.”
New program
HealthTechXL is a new venture-building program for start-ups in the healthcare and MedTech sector. The partners involved are Philips, HighTechXL, the Brabantse Ontwikkelings Maatschappij (BOM), DeepTechXL, and Invest-NL. With the new program, they want to give an extra boost to the creation, building, and development of startups in advanced medical technology in the Brainport Eindhoven region.
HealthTechXL officially started at the beginning of September with 50 participants. In the first half of 2024, the teams will pitch their proposal to investors, potential partners, and the broader Brainport startup community.
“Global societal challenges, such as affordable and accessible healthcare, can only be solved by combining breakthrough technologies with entrepreneurship,” said John Bell, CEO of HighTechXL. “Venture building is a structured approach that allows entrepreneurs to convert technology into impact. Venture builders have a much higher success rate than independent ventures. Over the past ten years, HighTechXL has developed itself into a leading deep-tech venture builder. We look forward to the startups this new program will produce.”
Improve healthcare
During HealthTechXL, participants develop ideas to improve healthcare or medical technology further. Successful participation in HealthTechXL can lead to a possible investment by BOM and a follow-up investment from DeepTechXL and the Deep Tech Fund of Invest-NL. It is expected that up to 15 startups will be funded over the next three years, which should eventually lead to more companies that contribute to better, financially accessible healthcare.
“Brabant, and in particular the Brainport Eindhoven region, breathes medical technology, but a specific venture-building program to help more entrepreneurs grow successfully more quickly was still lacking,” said Brigit van Dijk–van de Reijt, general manager of BOM. “The enormous interest from budding entrepreneurs shows the need for this program.”
Yvonne Greeuw, Investment Associate at the Invest-NL Deep Tech Fund, adds: “There is enormous potential in the innovations that currently remain untapped, as well as in the technical talent that becomes available to develop them further. These projects can play an important role in achieving better, affordable and accessible healthcare. However, they require patient capital and are often riskier than what regular investors typically look for. We are therefore pleased that we can offer financial perspective within this program with the Deep Tech Fund.”
Guidance from DeepTechXL
Guus Frericks, Managing Partner of DeepTechXL, expects the program to result in many new healthtech companies. “We will support the program with our knowledge of medical technology. We expect that promising new medical companies will start thanks to this initiative, to which we can contribute through early phase financing and guidance.”
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