This year marked the 6th annual MaRS Health Innovation Week (HIW), Canada’s largest gathering of health startups, investors and the health ecosystem, as over 4,000 attendees collected to network, secure funding, and learn from industry experts. HIW events were focused around three key conferences this year including HealthKick Adopt, HealthKick Investment, and HealthKick Focus.
HIW kicked off with HealthKick Adopt, where health institutions, decision-makers and entrepreneurs came together to drive the adoption of the latest health solutions in local and foreign markets. The HIW Healthkick Focus events explored “How AI Will Transform the Pharma Industry” and “The Intersection of Innovation and Aging.”
Next came HealthKick Invest, which is the largest early-stage health investment conference in Canada. It provided a platform for attendees to connect with global venture capital funds, family offices, angel investors and other capital partners through a series of investment panels, networking events, one-on-one meetings and the HealthKick Challenge pitch competition.
Medical technology startups pitched to Canadian and U.S VCs, other investors, c-suite leaders and industry partners for a chance win up to $25000 in cash prizes as well as in-kind services valued up to $10000 at the Healthkick Pitch competition. The competition showcased 16 Medical devices, pharma & biotech, and digital health companies, and three finalists were then chosen from each industry category. The pitch competition prize was awarded to Nanology Labs, a pharmaceutical company that harnesses advanced nanotechnology to detect and treat cancers at the early stages. In kind services were awarded to the runners up, Managing Life, an industry-leading digital pain management solution, and ImmunoBiochem Corporation an oncology biotechnology company that is innovating the targeting of heterogeneous solid tumors.
Fundraising panel discussions provided attendees with the opportunity to gain investor insights on deal making, raising capital, expectations following investment, and the effects of public markets on private health investing. The panel emphasised the importance of startups having alignment with the investor, understanding what value the investor brings to the table other than just money, and maintaining trust and transparency with investors after the close.
Investing panel discussions ran in parallel with the Fundraising panels and addressed digital health, medical device and therapeutics investing, multinational partnering and corporate venture capital investing, as well as Angels and family offices investing in Health. The investing panels wrapped up with a discussion on “Why Invest in Canada,” which identified Canada’s medical technology infrastructure and talent arbitrage as major advantages amidst current political and economic volatility. But the panel also highlighted a lack of Canadian aspiration, emphasizing the need for a change in mindset to dream bigger in order to create anchor companies and advance medical technology commercialization.