The most innovative startups and scaleups in the health sector won prizes at the Santander X Global Challenge | Innovation in Healthcare awards.

Madrid, 27 November 2024.
Today saw the most innovative startups and scaleups crowned at the awards ceremony for Santander x Global Challenge | Innovation in Healthcare, a global competition ran by Banco Santander in collaboration with Hitachi and Oxentia Foundation. Lasting five months, the competition took to 11 countries to find the most innovative healthcare solutions. The winners each scooped a share of 120,000 euros. 

Startup category winners

The winner of the Startup category was the UK’s Cardiology Devices, which has come up with an innovative device to treat advanced heart conditions, especially in the elderly.

In second place was BioTryp Therapeutics, also from the UK, which has developed technology that will revolutionize the way we treat infections through an alternative to traditional anti-biotics. The panel gave third place to Feyenally, a Polish startup that has developed a groundbreaking app to perform remote eye examinations through mobile phones.

Scaleup category winners

UK-based Mendelian was the winner of the Scaleup category. Its team has developed an algorithm that enables doctors to detect rare diseases early by encoding case finding criteria for over 100 hard-to-diagnose diseases.

Runner-up was CanCertain Limited, also from the UK, which is re-defining the future of cancer treatment with 3D cell culture-based personalized tests that recommend the best course of treatment for patients in just eight days.

In third place was Spain-based Bitbrain, which has developed neurotechnology devices for electroencephalogram (EEG) brain and body monitoring, based on AI-powered software.

Santander and its support for education, employability and entrepreneurship

Santander is firmly committed to progress and inclusive sustainable growth. It has been a pioneering stalwart of education, employability and entrepreneurship for 27 years, standing out among the world's financial institutions. Santander has deployed more than €2.3 billion and provided over €1.5 billion to help people and businesses through agreements with nearly 1,200 universities and organizations. We also featured in Fortune magazine’s 2023 “Change the World” list as one of the biggest contributors to making the world a better place (www.santander.com/universidades).

Through Santander X, we help entrepreneurs, startups, scaleups and SMEs create opportunity, progress and grow through training, advisory services and the resources they need to scale their businesses.