Charting the Future of Healthtech: Exclusive Insights from Tech Tour Growth Health 2025 Leadership
As the healthtech ecosystem accelerates across Europe, Tech Tour Growth Health 2025 emerges as the must-attend summit for investors, innovators, and ecosystem leaders. Ahead of this year’s 16th edition in Lausanne, Switzerland (2–4 July 2025), we sat down with the event’s President Marc Sluijs and Vice Presidents, Fei Tian and Matic Meglic, to get a behind-the-scenes look at what makes Tech Tour Growth Health 2025 a unique catalyst for partnerships, funding, and future-shaping technologies.
In this exclusive story, we delve into the vision driving this year’s agenda, the strategic themes shaping the selection process, and the trends defining the future of Digital Health and Medtech. Whether you’re a founder ready to pitch or an investor seeking the next unicorn, these insights will help you prepare to make the most of the event.
TT: Please briefly introduce yourself and tell us more about your current position and company
MS: I’m the Managing Parther of Digitalhealth.Network, which contributes to scaling the digital health industry, as facilitator of growth funding and M&A, having realised more than 10 transactions in recent years. Having specialised in digital health for over a decade, I previously spent more than 20 years working with the Life Sciences Industry in a variety of advisory and M&A roles at IQVIA, Accenture and Oracle Health Sciences. I’m also advisor on digital health to several buyout funds such as EQT and Mubadala.
FT: I am Fei from MIG Capital, a seed and series A VC firm from Munich, Germany. We invest in disruptive innovation with a ground-breaking vision, to generate high value and impact to the society, both in the life science and deep tech sectors. As a physician by training, I work as principal for the life science team at MIG and am eager to support the high growth potential health tech companies and teams, with the ultimate goal of bringing true clinical and health benefit to the patients and public population, with digital solutions backed by advanced tech platform and data analytics.
MM: I’m a medical doctor with a PhD in digital health. After a decade in research and public health informatics, I have spent another decade building and commercially scaling innovative solutions at the intersection of medtech, pharma and digital health. After regional and global roles in Medtronic and Novartis, I am currently doing startup and scaleup advisory and coaching work.
TT: Why did you decide to lead Tech Tour Growth Health? How do you see the value this program creates?
MS: I’ve been involved with Tech Tour since 2014, and already presided the event once in 2015; I was keen to mark my 10-year involvement by again making Growth Health the flagship event for Tech Tour, by putting more emphasis on successful growth companies. The quality of the participating companies is traditionally exceptional – this year’s parallel “Digital Health Leaders” track will add even more value for all attendees through the sharing of learnings by a group of companies that all reached at least 8 digits in revenue, whilst being profitable (or near profitability).
FT: I have been working in the health tech sector since 2017 and met Tech Tour and the leadership team back then. It has always been a place to meet the thought-leaders for in-depth discussions and inspiration. With this group of investors, organisations and startup companies, we have been through hypes and consolidations. This year I am honoured to contribute with an active role and would love to facilitate the growth stories in the European health tech and an open and honest exchange of the experiences and resilience of our business sector.
This program for me is not only a place to meet the next investment cases, but to establish a vision for building growth and success stories after sailing through a new blue ocean and rough waters in the health tech industry.
MM: Tech Tour made a lasting impression on me when I first attended many years ago. I have established a number of important contacts through it and gotten deep insights into which of the future trends are gaining traction, which companies to keep an eye on or invest into. This year, my role allows me to give something back to the Tech Tour community.
TT: What are the biggest trends in Healthtech right now, and how do they shape the startups selected for this year’s event?
MS: Digital Health as an industry is still way too fragmented, and most companies lack the critical mass needed to effectively penetrate the challenging healthcare, life sciences and payer markets. I foresee a marked acceleration of M&A activity. Startups should be savvy about how they build their business, and be clear about whether they will be acquirers or acquired, and align their capabilities accordignly.
Secondly, D2C business models have been overlooked and under-appreciated by both entrepreneurs and investors, which is contradictory with the global trend for great consumer involvement in health, including increasing out-of-pocket spend. Some of the most successful digital health companies have D2C business models, as you will also see illustrated by several of the digital health leaders speaking at this year’s event.
FT: Efficiency and better outcomes are the theme and goal currently being enforced in the healthcare system, across all levels from, for example, NHS national reformation through to how to complete a pathology slide faster and more precisely. AI and machine learning are revolutionizing healthcare by enabling more accurate diagnoses, personalized treatment plans, and streamlined operational efficiency. Platform players with a wholeness data strategy are another theme in focus for health tech investors, to act as a critical mass and a whole solution offering for the customers.
There are already numerous startups lined up, that fulfil the trend highlights mentioned above, and I believe that there will be more such selected to form the near future championship.
MM: I’m expecting that pretty much every startup will by now integrate some kind of AI technology into its value proposition. The key however is to understand how viable, implementable and sellable those new value propositions will be. Aside from AI, I am expecting to see great strides forward in non-invasive wearable diagnostics and in transfer of procedures out of hospitals and into people’s homes (such as ultrasound, auscultation). I am also expecting to see innovation across the medtech field from new (smart) materials research.
TT: What makes a startup stand out in the selection process for Tech Tour Growth Health?
MS: Key differentiators are evidence of an effective, scalable business model and a team that has the relevant experience to enable them to quickly scale the business. When pitching, companies should focus much less on problem statements (honestly, by now we all know healthcare is broken and that chronic disease is a costly and growing burden…), and instead focus on articulating and demonstrating how they will be able to grow revenues in a focused way. Another recommendation is to have a clear strategy to develop proprietary longitudinal data assets as that can be a key competitive moat, as well as make companies more attractive for large acquirers that want to leverage these data-assets for AI development.
FT: For a growth-stage company, a big vision and the execution plan behind it are the basis. A distinguished value proposition for the stakeholders is also key. The data collection potential and analytics capacity is also an essential factor for long-term success for a startup.
MM: To me, aside from being able to show commercial traction, it is important to demonstrate (1) solid IP protection; (2) strong clinical and HEOR evidence; (3) ability to internationally scale both the commercial organisation as well as the production and delivery; (4) some kind of competitive advantage in early scaling (be it innovative pricing, or a unique distribution partnership); and – critically – (5) demonstrating deep understanding of how the various healthcare processes are impacted by the product or solution – and how the users need to adjust to benefit from them.
TT: What key investment opportunities do you see in Healthtech over the next 5 years?
MS: There are great opportunities for market consolidators – which can either be healthtech companies using an active M&A strategy as well as specialised small/mid-cap Private Equity funds. The scale thus created will drive faster and broader scale adoption of digital health. Secondly, there is a growing opportunity for companies deploying D2C business models – these offer multiple unique advantages: scale users and usage faster, iterate and refine solutions continuously to achieve far greater engagement, impact and outcomes; this demonstration of value can then be leveraged to develop additional successful B2B(2C) offerings.
FT: I see opportunities in deeptech-backed platforms with pipeline/organic development or through M&A consolidation to generate the growth potential, and also advanced computing enabled tech-bio solutions are going to revolutionize how we understand biology and how drugs are developed throughout the value chain.
MM: I see significant opportunities in solutions focusing on quality of, and access to, clinical data and data generated at home via wearable devices and non-invasive diagnostics. There will be an opportunity for both medtech companies as well as digital intermediaries to capture new value streams by giving access to this foundational data to ML / AI algorithms for quality personalised care and secondary use cases (screening, prevention, research). Interoperability platforms, access control, pseudonymisation and anonymisation, data federation platforms have been around for a while, but hard to scale and sell – this is changing now.
TT: What are you most excited about for the onsite event of Tech Tour Growth Health 2025?
MS: We will have two exceptional venues that will be uniquely different from any other conference – featuring both medical innovation and academic excellence, to favor productive networking in a unique Swiss alpine/lake setting, away from daily occupations and distractions in traditional city environments, to favour meaningful exchanges, out-of-the-box thinking and serendipity. Also, the number of attendees is limited and highly curated, to optimally facilitate networking with only relevant stakeholders. Hence I foresee the event will be sold out in advance.
FT: I am excited to meet the network and to learn from them the most relevant and validated industry trends, as well as discuss how to continue the business success and maximize the opportunities soon. The crowd at Tech Tour events has high impact on the health tech industry, yet is not overwhelming in terms of event size. There will be a special selection of Digital Health Leaders of high-growth companies, and I very much look forward to hearing their experience and strategy going forward.
MM: To meet old and new business partners with whom we can create more value for the patients, HC systems, and industry; and to catch up on the most exciting new products and solutions being launched.
With a laser focus on curated connections, future-forward solutions, and scalable innovation, Tech Tour Growth Health 2025 promises an unmatched experience for healthtech stakeholders across Europe and beyond. From 90+ seasoned investors to the Top 40 growth companies, the stage is set for powerful collaboration and next-level breakthroughs.
Don’t miss your chance to be part of the future of healthtech — register today or apply to pitch before the May 11 deadline.
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