Oncology, anxiety, pregnancy. Ukrainian HealthTech startups offer solutions to help patients

"This sector plays a key role in strengthening the healthcare system, creating access to medical services in crisis conditions, and integrating the most advanced technologies into treatment and prevention. In general, this industry is one of the key strategic sectors for supporting and restoring Ukraine," says Jane Klepa, Director of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Set University, a Kyiv-based technology school.

et University, in partnership with the Tokarev Foundation, organized the Generation H initiative, which brought together leading Ukrainian medical startups, provided them with mentoring support and helped them develop a business plan.

"Ukrainian startups are adapting to global challenges while responding to local needs caused by the war and its aftermath, and in the global context, the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic," adds Klepa.

Ovul

The Ovul startup team has created a fertility and hormonal health tracker based on the analysis of saliva samples using artificial intelligence. "The idea for the device, as is often the case, arose from a personal challenge that Serhiy, the startup's co-founder, faced when he and his wife were planning their third pregnancy. As a person who had long worked for a leading company in the medical diagnostics market, he was amazed at how difficult and inconvenient it was to track fertility at home," the company says.

The idea itself was born in the fall of 2023, and after four months of intensive work, the first test version of the device appeared. At the early development stage, all costs were covered by the company's own funds, all expertise was provided by in-house experts, and the first testers were friends and acquaintances of the Ovul founders.

The team currently employs nine people. The startup offers the product to customers, helping women get pregnant successfully and on time. The product itself is a device with software to get results – and fast results at that.

"The device is based on the well-known and well-studied principle of ferning, which is the crystallization of saliva when it dries in characteristic fern-like patterns that result from changes in a woman's hormonal levels at different stages of the monthly cycle," Ovul says.

These patterns are then captured by a compact digital microscope, taking high-quality images of dried saliva, which it sends to the cloud service. Then, an AI algorithm trained on large data sets helps to interpret the results, and they are sent to the mobile app. Ovul says that this data is accurate. They can help determine the time period when the probability of conceiving a healthy child is highest.

The device is currently available online for $189 in a basic package, but there are other options for different users. The mobile app for the device is available on the AppStore and PlayMarket platforms, currently for the US market.

"We already have plans to turn our product into a companion for women from the very first period to menopause," the company says. "In terms of hormone levels, there is no significant difference whether it is the first cycle or not, so our product is able to track the first period in girls, which no other device in the world can do now. On the other hand, changes in hormone levels during premenopause can also be detected by our device with regular use."

In the near future, Ovul plans to expand the functionality of its product to include pregnancy management and contraception, attracting new users and thus obtaining more data for analysis. This is necessary to find markers that characterize certain health conditions.

"We are actively conducting clinical research to find more and more useful relationships that are valuable indicators of a healthy life," Ovul says.

CareWay

CareWay is a technology platform designed specifically to support couples on their journey to parenthood.

One of the company's founders faced challenges and uncertainty when he and his wife began preparing for parenthood. Too many questions remained unanswered. That's how the idea of technology consultations for couples on the path to pregnancy came about. So that a couple could quickly get answers to all their questions, as well as recommendations for their individual situation during pregnancy. Interaction takes place through the technology of an adaptive knowledge system (a technology in which a computer algorithm teaches itself to interpret your individual data), a personal manager (who will contact a doctor if necessary), and an AI consultant.

Part of the team had previously created one medical service, check-up.in.ua, in 2019, so they had experience.

The team is currently based in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Lviv, and Austria.

In fact, the CareWay service is currently free for users, with payments coming from the clinics to which patients are referred. However, in the future, they plan to launch a premium subscription costing about $10 per month, as well as specialized programs with extended services.

"The uniqueness of the platform is that it allows couples to go through the pregnancy journey together: share important information, make decisions together, and support each other. Although the platform can be used independently, the tools for couple interaction make the process more engaging and effective," CareWay says.

The service works like this: users ask questions, describe the state of their body and their feelings during pregnancy, the system also has access to medical tests, and based on all the information, gives advice on how to act in a particular condition and situation. The service analyzes a large amount of data and involves a personal manager.

Caring24

Gosha Akimov, the founder of Caring24, came up with the idea of technology-based psychological support for cancer patients when his relative got cancer. "I had to learn a lot on my own: where to get treatment, how to choose a doctor, how to get pain relief, how to eat right, how to take care of myself, and much more," the company says.

At that time, Akimov met Victoria Kostetska, an oncologist and co-founder of the Ukrainian Psycho-Oncology Association. That's how the idea to create a bot for emotional support for patients' relatives came about. Later, Anton Halytskyi, a developer with experience in organizing digital medical services, joined the idea.

In February 2022, the bot was presented at the All-Ukrainian Forum of Cancer Patients, but the war interrupted the development of the service. Therefore, the founders simply posted many tips and tricks on YouTube, but they wanted to move forward. In the second half of 2022, the work resumed, and a grant from the World Health Organization helped.

In the summer of 2024, the Caring24 team consisted of eight people working from five different countries. They created a full-fledged service called Caring24, a mobile application available in online markets and launched in partnership with the National Cancer Institute. It offers daily support for the entire family of a cancer patient, providing users with a clear action plan, information about the disease, and psychological support. It works on both iOS and Android.

The app offers users step-by-step instructions after diagnosis; psychological support with the help of an AI assistant; medication reminders; online appointment with an oncologist; audio exercises; discounts on tests; and verified content on diseases and treatments.

The Turbota24 app is recommended for use by the Ukrainian Psycho-Oncology Association and is free of charge for clients.

"Turbota24 helps to remove chaos from the life of an oncology patient and provides them with all the necessary information that they would have to look for on their own from unverified sources. In the end, the cancer patient and his family have a clear understanding of the situation, a step-by-step action plan, and advice on how to make the treatment process as comfortable as possible for the patient," the company says.

Instead, the company earns money through affiliate marketing. Users of the app order services from providers, and the service receives a commission. There are also sales of services to companies that want to take care of their employees with cancer.

"In the future, we want to be useful not only at the time of diagnosis and treatment, but also preventively. To do this, we will prepare a database of checkups so that every person who downloads the Caring24 app and passes the necessary checkups knows that they are doing everything possible every day to live a healthy life," Caring24 says.

Apixmed

Apixmed's key product is a digital platform for clinics, laboratories, medical centers, and a web interface for individual users. It is a service for analyzing genetic and medical information that allows you to analyze the treatment you have already chosen in terms of risks, using medical history and genome analysis, thus bringing a person closer to choosing the best strategy for maintaining health and treating complex and chronic diseases.

All of this works on a subscription basis, with prices varying. The product is available on request at support@apixmed.com and through the website www.apixmed.com. Business clients can get advice on system setup and pricing. 

The platform offers the following functionality: search for personalized treatment options; interpretation of genetic and medical data; analysis of drug combinations; and optimization of treatment costs.

Once a client sets up a subscription, they can choose the modules that meet their needs, and the platform starts processing the data, eventually providing individualized treatment recommendations.

Apixmed aims to expand its services in the Ukrainian healthcare system by making medicine personalized. To do this, customers must have access to an in-depth analysis of their health status, including genetic and molecular profiles. The use of artificial intelligence, among other methods, is proposed to select therapy. In the future, the company plans to focus on complex diseases, such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, and cardiovascular pathologies.

"We strive to ensure that our future services are fully integrated into the global digital healthcare ecosystem, providing convenience for users and quick access to innovative solutions," Apixmed adds.

The Apixmed team was formed as a creative synergy of Marina Korshevnyuk, a PhD candidate in personalized medicine and bioinformatics, and medical product software developer Yevhen Havryliuk, and another developer, a specialist in systems analysis and applied mathematics, Andrii Nevzorov. The employees are based in Ukraine, the UK, and the Netherlands.

Mindship

"You know, the idea for the startup came about quite by accident," says Viacheslav Urdzik, co-founder of the Mindship project. "When my girlfriend was going through an anxiety disorder, I noticed how difficult it can be to cope with stress at a critical moment when there is no simple and convenient tool available. I finally realized how important it was during IT Arena 2024. All these acquaintances, networking, new faces – mentally, at some point, I just ‘burned out’. I wanted to recover quickly, but even the previously familiar techniques for self-regulation did not work."

The Mindship mobile app was born out of this idea. "Mindship helps people cope with stress, anxiety, or focus in just a few minutes. The point is that the app analyzes your breathing patterns and adapts the practice to your request and condition. If, for example, you are feeling anxious, the app will tell you how to breathe to quickly calm down," says Urdzik.

Mindship is a kind of personal guide to the world of breathing practices. It combines scientific research on breathing, user data, and AI to quickly help reduce anxiety, cope with stress, and increase concentration.

The app is currently undergoing closed beta testing, but will be available for iOS and Android in the future, including integration with Apple Watch, Garmin, Oura Ring, Whoop, as well as Apple Health and Google Fit services. Initially, the subscription will cost $9.99 per month, but currently there is a special price in Ukraine for those who want to test the app.

Currently, the Mindship team consists of six people scattered across different locations: Kyiv, Odesa, Lviv, Poland, and Spain.

"We don't want to limit ourselves to breathing practices. Mindship should become a platform that helps people in the long run. We plan to create individual programs to introduce healthy habits, improve sleep, and reduce stress," the startup's co-founder says.

Health Helper

"The idea of Health Helper was born a few years ago when I, as an economist and analyst, began to study the HealthTech market and the needs of modern society in depth with students. I became interested in preventive medicine and realized that it was the future," says Olena Sergienko, CEO of Health Helper and professor of entrepreneurship at the National Technical University Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute.

Later, she was joined by Ihor Sosnov, an associate professor at the same department, a technical specialist who already had experience in hydraulics and fluid behavior. Other team members responsible for management, marketing, and promotion also joined.

Health Helper is a hardware device complemented by software that is "intuitive," the company says. It is designed to monitor blood pressure and blood flow in real time.

The device itself is compact and portable, and can be carried in a bag or pocket. It has high-precision sensors for reading body data, which are transmitted to the mobile app via Bluetooth. In the app, the user receives an analysis of health indicators, tips and advice on how to improve their health.

"The primary determination of blood velocity is a very important indicator. It is a current for our body, so measuring blood velocity is a significant indicator, unlike blood pressure," says Olena Sergienko.

This device is suitable for people with hypertension or a predisposition to cardiovascular disease, athletes and physically active people, and ultimately anyone who wants to monitor their health in a convenient way. 

The first prototype of the device has already been presented, and the company is currently working on scaling up production. The tentative cost is 100 euros.

Later, they plan to add the functions of tracking stress levels, heart rate, blood oxygenation, and connect an AI platform for personalized monitoring.

The Ministry of Health positively evaluates the work of the new generation of Ukrainian medical startups. "The Ministry of Health is interested in receiving the final products of this bootcamp [Generation H initiative]," says Ihor Kuzin, Deputy Minister of Health and Chief State Sanitary Doctor. "We are ready to help the program participants and companies that will join the initiative in the future to access the necessary data, contacts and medical expertise to facilitate their innovations and transform healthcare in Ukraine and beyond.”