This week's big theme
Pattern Shift
Every week I review dozens of health tech stories to curate this newsletter and recently I've noticed something has shifted. Almost every story is a partnership.
This week alone: Garmin and Natural Cycles, Heidi and PortmanDentex, Lucis and MindDay, Function and Getlabs.
Founders and investors have figured out that the right partnership unlocks an entirely new feature set and customer base faster than building ever could.
Which raises the question: does this reshape what the best founders look like?
Technical capability is becoming a commodity. The founders who win from here will be the ones who can sell, build trust and open doors. Commercial thinking is the new product thinking.
Getting the right people with this skillset is now a higher priority than hiring the best engineer you can afford.
In this week's episode Dan Strang, Co-Founder of Coopah, talks about how just months after launch with almost no customers, a chance conversation led to them becoming the official training app of the London Marathon.
One partnership changed everything.
Industry News
Heidi X PortmanDentex to bring AI scribe to Dentistry
Heidi has signed a two-year deal with PortmanDentex, one of the UK and Ireland's largest dental groups, to deploy its AI clinical scribe across the network. Around 60 new clinicians are going live each month, following a pilot that cut admin time in practices across both markets. (heidihealth.com)
Why it matters: If you're building for clinical settings, this is the deal structure worth studying. Pilot first, prove it works, then roll out at pace. The buying decision sits at group level - but 60 clinicians a month choosing to use it suggests the frontline validation is there too.
Garmin X Natural Cycles for Fertility Tracking
Compatible Garmin smartwatches join Oura and Whoop in syncing overnight temperature data directly to Natural Cycles, the FDA-cleared contraceptive app, removing the need for a separate thermometer. (lifehacker.com)
Why it matters: Garmin ships over 4 million devices a quarter. That's a lot of new users funnelling into Natural Cycles' algorithm, which gets more accurate as its dataset grows. More evidence hardware partnerships are becoming a distribution strategy in their own right.
Lucis X MindDay to Connect Blood Testing with Mental Health
Lucis, the YC-backed blood testing platform tracking 160+ biomarkers with over 1 million tests done since 2025, has partnered with MindDay, a mental health app with over 2 million downloads across Europe. The two are combining blood data and mental health tools into a single prevention platform - your body and your mind in the same product. (linkedin.com)
Why it matters: Two startups combining data rather than each trying to build everything from scratch. Partnerships like this shorten the road to a full prevention product for both parties. The model is worth watching - partnership as a faster route to breadth than building.
Unilever Acquires Grüns for $1.2bn
Unilever has agreed to acquire Grüns, the US greens supplement brand founded in 2023, for $1.2 billion in another huge CPG deal following Huel and Bionic. The company hit $300 million in annualised revenue in under two years, built around a daily gummy format designed to be something people actually stick to. (unilever.com)
Why it matters: Three years old. $1.2bn exit. Grüns built around the belief that adherence is the real problem in supplements, not the formula. CPG majors are now paying serious money for consumer health brands with retention that holds.
Function Acquires Getlabs to Bring At-Home Blood Draws to Members
The preventive health platform valued at $2.5 billion, has acquired Getlabs, which sends licensed phlebotomists directly to members' homes or offices. Members can now choose between visiting one of 2,000+ labs or booking an at-home blood draw, with the same tests and results either way. (fitt.co)
Why it matters: Getting to a lab is the main reason people don't test regularly. Remove that step and you change the behaviour. For anyone building preventive health products, this is a useful proof point that removing friction is worth more than adding features.
Investment Updates
neuroClues, €10m Series A (eu-startups.com) - The Franco-Belgian medtech developing an AI-powered eye-tracking device for early diagnosis of neurological conditions including Parkinson's and Alzheimer's raised €10m led by Teampact Ventures, White Fund and the EIC Fund, bringing total funding to €25m.
TeiaCare, €7m (vestbee.com) - The Italian AI care monitoring platform serving over 150 nursing homes and 75,000 residents raised €7m led by P101 to expand into France and Spain.
Wearable Robotics, €5m Series A (seedcue.com) - The Pisa-based rehabilitation robotics company behind the ALEX RS upper-limb exoskeleton, deployed across 20 countries, raised €5m led by CDP Venture Capital to accelerate international expansion.
Lucida Medical, £8.7m (uktech.news) - The Cambridge AI company using machine learning to support prostate cancer diagnosis from MRI scans, currently deployed across 15 NHS hospitals, raised £8.7m led by IW Capital with participation from Macmillan Cancer Support and XTX Ventures.
This Week's Episode
Dan Strang - CEO and Co-Founder, Coopah
Dan Strang is the Co-Founder and CEO of Coopah, the running app that wants to put an AI coach in every runner's pocket. In this episode he talks about product, coaching philosophy and why 58% of new runners quit within 30 days.
Roles Worth Knowing About
Senior Product Designer - FIIT
Hybrid - UK
FIIT is the number one rated fitness app with over 50 million workouts completed. This role covers end-to-end product design across mobile and web on the ONE FIIT platform, working from early discovery through to polished delivery.
Head of Product - MAGIC AI
Hybrid - London
MAGIC AI is building an in-home AI health coach that uses computer vision and connected weights to deliver personalised training sessions with world-class athletes. This is the first product hire reporting directly to the CEO, responsible for defining the roadmap and building out the product function from an early stage.
Data Engineering Functional Lead - Neko Health
Remote - Stockholm, London, Manchester
Co-founded by Spotify's Daniel Ek, Neko Health uses 70+ sensors to collect 50 million data points in a 10-minute body scan, with clinics across Stockholm, London and Manchester. This role leads data infrastructure and analytics for the AI platform underpinning preventive care at scale across a 500-person team.
Head of Data - Birdie
Hybrid - London
Birdie is the UK's leading homecare technology platform, B-Corp certified and supporting over 60 million care visits in 2025 across 1,200 agencies. This role owns the data platform and customer-facing analytics products, building the capability that helps care providers deliver better outcomes for older adults.
Senior Software Engineer - Thriva
London
Thriva has sent over 5 million at-home blood test kits, helping people track nutrients, hormones and cholesterol with GP-reviewed results from home. This full-stack role builds the platform that puts preventive health data in people's hands, working with Ruby and modern frontend frameworks.
That's it for Issue #6.
If you found this useful, forward it to one founder or investor in your network who'd get value from it. Reply with anything you'd like to see more of. I read every response.
