London VC Meridian Health Ventures Launches €44M Transatlantic HealthTech Fund

The goal of the fund is to support fast-growing HealthTech companies. It will help UK healthcare innovations grow within the NHS and expand into the US healthcare market.

Dr Nadine Hachach-Haram, Co-Managing Partner at Meridian Health Ventures, commented: “With this Fund, we want to supercharge the growth of the most promising innovations so they can deliver direct benefits to the NHS’s patients and workforce, as well as the wider UK economy. Through transatlantic collaboration, we are also creating an environment where ambitious founders can scale at pace – both domestically and internationally – bridging the gap between UK NHS and US healthcare systems for a start.”

Meridian Health Ventures, which started in 2021 as KHP Ventures, is run by a team with wide-ranging experience — including entrepreneurs, investors, doctors, academics, and healthcare industry leaders.

The fund backs fast-growing HealthTech companies like Doccla, deepc, Patchwork, Tympa Health, Apian, iFAST Diagnostics, PocDoc, Phare Health, 52 North, and MediShout.

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Its General Partners are Daniel Dickens, Dr. Nadine Haram, Tim Irish, and Dr. Pooja Sikka.

Meridian has also invested in promising MedTech startups that spun out from top UK universities such as Cambridge, Oxford, Imperial, King’s College London, and Southampton. Impressively, 12 NHS clinical entrepreneurs are among the founders of companies in its portfolio.

Together, these companies have launched their products in over 100 NHS Trusts and many are now expanding globally — some are already working with major US hospitals like Cedars-Sinai.

Daniel Dickens, Co-Managing Partner at Meridian Health Ventures, said: “As Founders ourselves, we’ve launched this Fund to ensure that the next generation of HealthTech breakthroughs can be scaled in the UK, not just invented here. We’re proud to partner with this group of leading health systems and healthcare investors on both sides of the Atlantic, and of course to work with the driven and talented founding teams in the Fund’s portfolio.”

Meridian Health Ventures says that it's still hard for UK HealthTech companies to grow within the UK. Many end up moving to the US to find better opportunities, which means the UK loses out on economic benefits and the NHS misses the chance to use local innovations.

The new fund is supported by leading UK health systems like Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, King’s College Hospital, and University College London Hospitals. It’s also backed by Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in the US. The goal is to help promising HealthTech companies succeed both in the UK and abroad. Hartford HealthCare in the US is also expected to join the fund soon, showing strong interest on both sides of the Atlantic.

Professor Ian Abbs, Chief Executive Officer at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, noted: “The NHS is facing one of the biggest challenges in its history – how to continue to deliver high-quality care against a backdrop of rising demand, increased patient acuity and pressures on workforce and finance. The NHS is not alone – most developed health systems are grappling with the same fundamental questions.

“This imperative to innovate is why we decided to become a founding institution of KHP Ventures and an anchor Partner in Meridian Health Ventures’ Fund. As a leading NHS organisation, we are committed to harnessing accelerations in new digital and biomedical advances, such as the innovative start-ups that this Fund invests in, to deliver better, faster and fairer healthcare for all.”

Meridian Health Ventures is said to be the first venture capital fund connected to the NHS and operating across both the UK and the US. It focuses on investing in healthcare innovators and helping their breakthrough solutions grow and be used more widely.

James D. Laur, JD, Chief Intellectual Property Officer at Cedars-Sinai and Managing Director of Cedars-Sinai Health Ventures, added: “Our mission at Cedars-Sinai is to provide patients around the world with the best care possible, and we believe that partnering with talented innovators across the globe will help us continue to achieve this. We have worked with the Meridian Health Ventures team in the UK for years and see their mission as deeply aligned with ours. We have been impressed by the quality and depth of the HealthTech Founders in their portfolio, and are excited to build on our collaboration as Partners in the Fund.”

In October 2024, Meridian Health Ventures also launched Europe’s first fund focused only on mental health technology. It's called the Innovations in Mental Health (IMH) Fund and was created with support from the Wellcome Trust and in partnership with South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust.

Together, the IMH Fund and the new transatlantic fund have received around €44.7 million in total commitments from investors.

Alex Trewby, CEO and Co-founder of Apian — one of Meridian Health Ventures' portfolio companies — said:

"Apian started in the NHS, and we’ve been lucky to grow with support from partners like Meridian Health Ventures and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust. What began through the NHS Clinical Entrepreneur Programme has now become a global mission — from working with companies like Zipline and Wing to helping deliver care to patients more quickly. Meridian’s new transatlantic fund is a win for patients, healthcare staff, and HealthTech founders like us."

About Meridian Health Ventures

Meridian Health Ventures is a venture capital fund that works across both the UK and the US. It was first known as KHP Ventures and focuses on supporting healthcare innovators and helping their ideas grow and be widely used. The fund is run by a team with experience in starting businesses, investing, running companies, working in healthcare regulation, research, and the health industry.