Scaling fast but funding slow?

Here's three reasons why growth-stage health tech struggles to land capital.

Digital health is caught in a paradox. Funding is bouncing back, AI is gaining traction in clinical practice, and healthcare providers are hungry for smarter tools. But for founders and investors navigating the growth stage, progress often feels like pushing through molasses.

Why? Because capital alone isn’t enough anymore. To land the right investment – and make it stick – healthtech scale-ups must move beyond proof of concept. What’s needed now is proof of adoption, proof of policy alignment, and proof that your technology doesn’t just work but also gets paid for.

Here are three realities shaping the road to growth in today’s healthcare tech landscape: 

1. Regulatory lag still drags down innovation

   The biggest threat to adoption isn’t bad tech, it’s unclear reimbursement. For example, More than 600 FDA-cleared AI tools in the U.S. exist today without a standard Medicare billing code. If hospitals can’t get paid to use your product, it won’t scale no matter how elegant your algorithm is.
   
   The picture gets even messier across borders; what clears quickly in one market may stall indefinitely in another. That’s why growth-stage companies are working with regulatory experts early and building roadmaps with emerging compliance trends in mind, like algorithm auditability and data-sharing standards. The winners building tech and building toward policy.

    

2. Strategic money is smart money

   VC isn’t the only seat at the table anymore. Corporate venture arms, private equity funds, and even family offices are now writing checks and opening doors.
   
   In June 2025 alone, a $28M AI health round was co-led by Cigna’s venture arm and Valtruis, while the AMA’s innovation fund joined a $31.5M bet on medical imaging. These aren’t just logos on a cap table, they’re validators with reach, knowledge, and end-user access. Founders should be curating investor syndicates like they curate leadership teams: for reach, not just runway.

    

3. Growth requires a coalition

   Scaling in healthcare isn’t a solo sport. Startups that win at this stage are building coalitions: strategic investors, provider champions, policy advisors, and commercialization experts.
   
   It’s not enough to prove clinical efficacy – you also need to show you can navigate procurement bureaucracy, integrate with legacy systems, and align with the politics of care delivery. That’s where coalitions come in. Those who scale aren’t louder. They’re better connected.

Final Thought: Vision wins capital, but execution wins markets

For founders, the message is clear: storytelling still matters, but policy fluency, distribution foresight and the right network matter more. For investors, it’s a reminder that the most compelling pitches now come from operators who understand healthcare’s inertia and have a plan to move through it.

WHX Tech was built for this exact moment. This September in Dubai, healthtech founders and investors will meet not just for funding, but for the connections, policy conversations, and system-level insights that turn friction into scale. If you’re ready to move from momentum to maturity, that’s where the real work begins. .