The discussion focused on three key themes:

• AI as a growth engine
• Consumerisation of healthcare
• New models of care

As well as these themes, the Albion team also shared how they approach investment and what startups need to understand when building tech for this highly regulated and very human sector.

AI as a growth engine

AI and its many tendrils is accelerating change across both digital care and digital pharma. If you’re a startup working in this space, AI, it seems, is driving investment. Startups who are building clinical workflow tools, AI scribes, and platforms that enhance decision-making or reduce admin burden are on the rise.

Dr Gilmartin said: “There are 293 AI scribes specifically focused on healthcare in the world.”

What with the impetus to reduce burnout for healthcare professionals whilst improving efficiency overall, it’s not hard to see how these tools would be worth investing in. However, whilst scribes are useful for transcribing notes, the Albion team noted that their evolution into tools that automate clinical tasks (like ordering tests or generating care recommendations) pushes them into regulatory territory – an area that many tech-first startups tend to underestimate.

Some things to watch out for:

• Healthcare doesn’t move fast for a reason: unlike consumer tech, for example, clinical innovation involves real lives, clinical risk, and legal accountability
• Regulatory red tape is non-negotiable: automating a CT scan order may sound simple, but in reality it demands MHRA clearance and robust risk protocols
• Trust is imperative: AI’s hallucinations are a known issue, and whilst mistakes aren’t great in any sector, in healthcare particularly, the stakes are exponentially higher

As Dr Elder explained: “A 1% hallucination rate sounds great, but if you're looking after 10,000 people, that's 100 errors which could actually be fatal. And that would be per day.”

So AI tools in a healthcare setting really do need to reach a much higher safety thresholds because as Dr Elder iterated, any misstep could trigger a backlash that has the capacity to derail adoption across the industry and set progress back by years.

Consumerisation of healthcare

As we know, healthcare is no longer a one-way interaction. Nowadays, patients are better informed, they want more and they are often willing to pay. Could they be transcending from patients to influencers of system design? It might be worth a startup looking at what the customer wants.

There is now an emerging B2C2B model, as Dr Gilmartin described: “A patient might say to their GP, ‘I'd really like to use Oviva’, and therefore they get referred to Oviva rather than to an NHS tertiary weight management clinic. So that patient is actually advocating for the type of service they want.”

This change in approach to care is shaping how services are delivered – and who pays for them. Whether through private insurance, personal funds spending, or hybrid NHS reimbursement, patients are ramping up demand for digital-first, user-centric tools.

What this means for startups:

• Consumer behaviour can set market trends, but use cases must still prove their clinical and cost impact
• Platforms like Flo Health and Manual are showing what high engagement looks like, and investors are watching
• Strategic partnerships with trusted platforms – such as the NHS app or Accurx – can open doors faster than building from scratch

However, this individualisation also complicates things, because, Dr Gilmartin pointed out, when care becomes personalisation, companies getting the engagement are really useful when it comes to gathering useful data. However, patients generally want and be willing to pay for things like weight loss or hair loss, for example, but the things that are really important in terms of preventative health, like taking statins and managing blood pressure are things that people tend not to take care of in the way they would their weight management, so the goal is, how can all the data, the consumerisation, and preventative management come together?

This is something the partners are hoping to see via the integration of AI. For startups who are looking to move into this space, they need to demonstrate how what they are offering can integrate into broader public health goals as well as fit within the constrained NHS budgets.

New models of care

COVID-19 gave cause to the rise of virtual-first care. Everything from women’s health to cardiometabolic disease now have providers that can deliver care through digital pathways first, in-person second. But as Dr Gilmartin pointed out, there’s a catch: patients don’t have just one condition, so can patient care be co-ordinated across multiple needs and platforms?

Stratification – determining who needs digital support versus in-person intervention – is key. However, startups need to consider the unit economics of multi-condition care, especially where complexity can erode margins.

Startups should ask:

• Can your model scale across overlapping conditions?
• Are you targeting a niche, or offering something transferable across care pathways?
• How are you engaging with ICSs (Integrated Care Systems) to fit within existing structures?

Who is AlbionVC, and how do they invest?

AlbionVC is a London-based venture firm with a 25-year history in healthcare. The company is led by medically trained professionals such as Dr Gilmartin and Dr Elder.

Albion VC backs early-stage UK and European startups in:

• Tech-enabled care services
• Clinical workflow and provider software
• Digital pharma tools and AI-led drug discovery platforms

The company specialises in hybrid models – where software and clinical services are entwined, and it also invests through a deeptech fund in therapeutics and biotech, especially where AI is used in discovery.

A note for startups:

• Integration with NHS infrastructure is crucial
• NICE approval doesn’t guarantee national rollout – local ICSs still decide
• You’ll need a business case grounded in either cost reduction or outcomes – user experience alone won’t be enough

Dr Gilmartin explained: “You save an hour a day for every doctor – how do you put a number on what they would do with that time? …. [If you can't demonstrate a cost-saving] … it's very hard to get adopted.”

What this all means for startups

Whilst momentum in the sector is growing, for example, Dr Elder pointed out that TechBio was the biggest growth segment in the previous 18 months, so are the hurdles that come with it.

Four takeaways for startups in this space:

• Understand the regulatory cliff edge: the moment you touch clinical decision-making, you may need CE or MHRA approval
• Prove your value beyond engagement: AI tools that reduce admin or improve experience are not enough. Show how you improve outcomes or reduce cost
• Interoperability isn’t optional: NHS systems remain fragmented. A slick app that doesn’t talk to legacy infrastructure won’t cut it
• The system is complex, cautious, and full of gatekeepers: but the rewards for those who find a pathway are enormous

Whilst bigtech isn’t going to topple the NHS, it will change how care is delivered at the local level. For any startups building the next generation of AI-led health tools, the question is no longer if the sector is ready. It’s how well prepared you are to meet it where it is – and bring it forward, safely.