Intuition Pumps: #1

Having lived both in Brazil and Mexico, the biggest markets in the region, and having traveled to many other countries, I saw massive issues in healthcare - hence, big opportunities to build.
Also, Brazil is often neglected or misunderstood among other Latam countries.
The reasons are, you name it - Brazil speaks Portuguese while other countries mainly Spanish, it’s historically separated from other countries, so you can find more similarities between Spanish-speaking countries. But after my experience in Brazil I know it’s at the forefront in many sectors, particularly healthcare.

Another point - going through news about new products and funding in Latam, there’re barely are any healthtechs!

The idea behind these writings is to understand the healthcare market better, find connections between countries in Latam and just learn from smart people who build in healthtech.

I feel there should be an intro:
I’m Darya (friends call me Dasha). I’m 25 and originally not from Latam at all - I’m from Russia with Russian & Ukrainian roots. 2 years ago moved to Brazil to launch a startup. So, here I am, exploring Latin America.

What experience do you have in healthcare?
I think curiosity is enough to embark on this. I don’t have a medical degree but I worked in neonatology at a hospital - at an intensive care unit. Also, half of my family are doctors - if you grew up reading anatomy atlases too, sending you a hug!
This year I worked on my healthtech startup, failed and learnt a lot. I learnt I know so little and there’re vast opportunities to help people in the region where I live now.

What’s Intuition Pumps?
It’s a reference to a concept by one philosopher, Daniel Dennet. Intuition Pumps means a thought experiment that engages a reader to use their intuition and come to a conclusion. Exactly what I experiment with - to share findings and encourage more people to discuss and create.

Enough introductions! Let’s get started.

One topic in human health always kept me puzzled - no one felt comfortable to talk about cancer.
Early on we get to know it’s (still) a tough disease to treat, and name someone who’s not a bit scared of it.

The first article by Intuition Pumps is dedicated to cancer and startups in the space.

Ep.1: Cancer Treatment in Latin America

Lung cancer, as we see, is the deadliest in Latam:

Notably, there’s some regional specifics - Bolivia and Chile have the highest incidence rates of gallbladder cancer worldwide, possibly related to some types of indigenous ancestry.

Latin America still has a poor rates of cancer treatment compared to other regions.

There are many challenges, including:

• Lack of access to innovative cancer treatments: only those who can afford private health insurance or out-of-pocket medicine have access. Latin American countries invest only $7 or $8 per patient with cancer, whereas the corresponding numbers for the UK, Japan, and the US are $183, $244, and $460;

• Ineffective laws and regulations: cancer control laws and regulations are often passed but not implemented or properly resourced;

• Stigma about cancer in societies: the stigma associated with cancer prevents many people from seeking early diagnosis and treatment - often they seek for help at terminal stages;

• Fragmented healthcare systems: healthcare systems in Latin America are fragmented, which leads to a lack of coordination, and inefficiencies.

Now, time to explore the landscape
of cancer treatment startups. Here it is:

Key findings:

Brazil is leading in cancer treatment innovation - 11 of 24 startups mapped are located in the country.
Mexico and Argentina are also at the forefront with 6 and 4 companies in healthtech.
Chile and Uruguay are presented with 2 and 1 companies.

What’s amazing to see - a bunch of accelerators and communities are rising. Look at Eretz.bio accelerator by Hospital Einstein - just there I found like a half of cancer care companies in Brazil, or Asociación Healthtech México.

A number of startups tackle breast cancer treatment: Eva, Thermy, Mamotest, BIONIRS, PHP Biotech, Palpa.

Yet if we look at the most common cancer types in Latam and the most dangerous ones, there’s a clear lack of products. For example, lung and stomach cancer remain neglected, while new cases keep growing.

Clearly there’s a huge space to build!

I’d like to tell about all companies from the map,
but starting with a few:

Palpa

Founded in Chile in 2021, Palpa produces a device that helps women to self-examine for breast cancer.
The founder, Josefa Cortés, designed the product after her family member was diagnosed with a late-stage breast cancer.
To date, Palpa has more than 25,000 customers, and is scaling to the US.

Eva

Julián Ríos Cantú and his co-founders first built a smart bra to detect breast cancer. A few years after, the team saw even bigger opportunity and pivoted to a system for radiology management and analytics.
Eva scaled across Latin America - to Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Honduras. Other regions such as Africa and India are on their next plans.

Opportunities

• Cancer treatment is a vast field for innovation.
  With its increasing death toll, the biggest funding rounds predominantly go to diagnostics (both preventive and detective) and biotech (cell and gene therapy, drug discovery) products.

• Another big round - Convergent Therapeutics with $90M raised.

Prostate cancer is one of the most common in Latin America, and patients need more effective prevention and treatment.

Any guess about AI applied to cancer diseases?

It’s my first writing on startups that battle oncology - will cover more in the next articles.

For sure, some companies are missing on the map. I’m working on a deeper research - reach out with your ideas on Linkedin or to [email protected]!

Healthtech Job Board

Sofia Salud is looking for a Head of People & Culture (Remote)
➡️ Apply

Latam Flywheel

🇨🇱 Longevo, a B2B health and wellbeing platform, raised a $5.5mn round led by Grupo Valora.
🇧🇷 Coala Saude raised a $2.6mn round led by Owl Ventures.
🇧🇷 Mitfokus, a fintech management platform for the healthcare, raised an undisclosed amount from Bossanova Investimentos and angel investors.
🇧🇷 HealthAPI, an underwriting platform for health data, was acquired by Axenya, a healthcare ecosystem, for an undisclosed amount. (Shoutout to Gui Lima!)
🇧🇷 Zenklub, a Brazilian healthtech, partnered with health companies Omint and Vivest and raised BRL$30M from undisclosed investors.

Till next weeks!
Até logo, or Hasta luego
- Dasha

P.S. drop me a line if something resonated,
or just tell about your startup ;)