Canadian Healthtech Startups Join Healthcare Accelerator Program in Singapore for Overseas Market Exploration
- VentureBlick
- Jun 12
- 5 min read
Updated: Jun 16
For the first time ever, the Canadian Technology Accelerator (CTA) brought a healthcare cohort to Singapore – welcoming seven up-and-coming Canadian healthtech startups as part of the 2025 Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Healthcare program. This healthcare accelerator program was a four-month global business development initiative led by Global Affairs Canada's Trade Commissioner Service (TCS) that ran from April to July 2025. VentureBlick was selected as the healthcare program partner to lead this special edition designed to support market entry, commercialisation, and fundraising efforts for startups in Singapore and across APAC.
Building Bridges: Canada Meets Singapore’s Health Innovation Scene
This AI in Healthcare CTA cohort participated in virtual workshops, mentoring sessions, in-person meetings, and exclusive visits to key stakeholders and agencies within the Singaporean healthcare innovation landscape. Most notably, the Canadian startups attended Asia Tech x Singapore in May 2025 and pitched live at a startup demo day event called Unboxing Day, jointly organised by VentureBlick and the Canadian Technology Accelerator.
Meet the Startups
These are the seven AI healthcare startups that embarked on the AI in Healthcare CTA 2025 program, after an intensive selection process:
16 Bit: Rho is an AI-driven X-ray analysis software that screens for low bone density, enabling early detection of osteopenia/osteoporosis using existing data.
MUUTAA: MUUTAA.ML is a turnkey AI as a Service (AIaaS) platform for supply chain optimisation in hospitals.
Pontosense: Silver Shield uses millimeter-wave radar and AI for more than 99%-accurate fall detection and continuous monitoring for seniors, without the need for cameras.
PragmaClin: PRIMS utilises an integrated system – 3D depth-sensing cameras and AI assessment – to quantify motor symptoms in Parkinson's patients.
Qualisure Diagnostics: Thyroid GuidePx and 5 other similar genomics tests function on a decentralised testing system to deliver personalised oncogenomics, improving cancer care and risk prediction.
Skinopathy: AI-supported platform that enables users to assess and manage skin conditions including skin cancer, burns, vitiligo, and psoriasis, with applications in medical and non-medical settings.
Swift Medical: Swift Skin & Wound harnesses smart device cameras to assess wound severities and states, in order to generate assessments and prognoses.
Laying the Foundation: Virtual Mentoring and Market Readiness
The program kicked off in a virtual setting where expectations and goals were aligned.
Each startup was strategically paired with a mentor from VentureBlick’s healthcare expert network – vetted clinicians and healthcare experts committed to innovation – based on their specialty area and development needs. A series of virtual sessions including workshops on market landscape, commercialisation, regulation, brand, marketing, and pitching were arranged in the weeks leading up to the startups’ arrival in Singapore.
These sessions were crucial in ensuring that the startups were ready for the activities lined up in the weeks to come.
Power Week in Singapore: Immersive Market Exploration and Live Pitches
The Canadian startups were in for an eventful week.
At the High Commission of Canada, the innovators had the opportunity to network with the key stakeholders and industry experts in the digital health tech sector.
The cohort then set off to co11ab Novena, where they learned about the Biomedical Data Hub, Centre for Medical Technologies and Innovation, Consortium for Clinical Research and Innovation Singapore, HealthTEC.SG, the Digital Health Accelerator, DxD Hub, Biomedia Holdings and Labgistics Asia. These organisations not only serve as leading innovation hubs offering mentorship, funding access, and commercialisation support, but also constitute key healthcare institutions supporting clinical validation, pilot projects, and medtech adoption.
The startups networked with key opinion leaders (KOL) in the healthtech space and gained valuable insights into the healthcare innovation landscape.
The startups then headed to their next series of visits to SingHealth Polyclinics, hospitals and other digital health government-backed agencies, to hear from the healthcare leaders in those spaces. As the primary adopters of new health technologies, these organisations introduced structured programs that would greatly support the startups’ innovations.
These on-site talks also allowed the startups to refine their business strategies to align with local clinical needs.
Throughout the week, we facilitated in-person B2B meetings between the startups and relevant distributors, investors, government agencies, clinicians, healthcare providers, and hospital research groups. These curated meetings allowed the startups to gather valuable insights into regulatory requirements, commercialisation pathways, and local clinical needs – while also fostering strategic relationships across the healthcare ecosystem.
Next came the long-awaited annual Asia Tech x Singapore (ATxSG), one of Asia’s largest platforms for tech and innovation. From 27-29 May, the seven startups had the opportunity to connect with fellow innovators and partners in the digital health sector from all over the world, sparking further conversations about market expansion, under the Canada Pavillion.
Finally, the healthcare accelerator program culminated in the Unboxing Day event hosted at SGInnovate, where the seven Canadian startups had the chance to pitch their AI healthcare innovations live to a room full of investors, corporates, mentors, and healthcare stakeholders.
Skinopathy emerged as the winner of the Best Pitch – Judges' Choice, while 16 Bit was voted as the Best Pitch – People's Choice! This was a powerful platform for the startups to gain traction for their innovations and receive real-time feedback from the judges on the panel.
As this market expansion program came to a close, we wrapped up the virtual B2B meetings for the startups and reflected on their progress over the past few months.
What Startups Had to Say
Here are some of the key takeaways the Canadian startups had after the AI in Healthcare CTA 2025:
Barry Holleman, CEO of MUUTAA: "What was very helpful was the meetings that were facilitated by the mentors that the VB team provided. It's really interesting to see how connected the VB ppl are within the Singaporean ecosystem, so it was really agile to take some feedback from one meeting we had that was very positive, some next steps [from another meeting] and 2 days later, we were able get a follow-up meeting going or some additional context to [understand] whether this would be a good opportunity and if the market fit is there for us, so I appreciated that a lot."
Dr Mark Cicero, Co-founder & Co-CEO of 16 Bit: "One of the hardest parts of entering a new market is talking to the appropriate stakeholders and ensuring that the problem you solve is truly a problem they experience. There was no better way of doing that than getting the connections through the VentureBlick program to talk and validate our solution, and from there it's sort of on autopilot now – the market will pull the product out of our hands. That's a great feeling when you have product-market fit, and we'll continue to iterate on that with our collaborators. That's a huge challenge that VB was able to help us solve in terms of getting our product recognised and into the market here in Singapore."
16 Bit was also able to secure its first Singaporean business deal during their week here, marking a significant milestone for their innovation.
Bronwyn Bridges, Founder & CEO of PragmaClin: "I think the activities that VentureBlick has planned have been a wide variety, so you see everything from meeting and tours to academia and accelerator programs, all the way to industry partner meetings set up 1-to-1, and the networking events itself, the conference. I think it's been a really great week that's been very jam-packed in a very great way, to make it all worthwhile to come all the way here for."
Looking Ahead
This market expansion program opened many doors for the startups, who were new to the ASEAN market where there is a growing demand for AI healthcare solutions. We are optimistic that the startups will successfully increase their market presence here, after this overseas market immersion experience.
VentureBlick and the Canadian Trade Commissioner Service are committed to accelerating healthcare innovation across borders. As like-minded innovation hubs, Singapore and Canada are at the forefront of transforming healthcare with new technological solutions – a partnership that we hope will grow stronger and continue for the generations of innovators ahead.
Comments