Applications open for Digital Health Rewired Pitchfest 2026

Applications have opened for Digital Health Rewired Pitchfest 2026, the UK’s most high-profile digital health start-up competition.

Run by Digital Health, organisers of Rewired, Pitchfest provides a platform for innovators and founders to pitch their solutions to influential leaders across UK healthcare.

Finalists and winners will be featured on Digital Health News and receive free entry to Rewired 26 where they will gain access to NHS leaders and digital teams, government officials, investors and potential partners.

The winners will also receive expert advice from Pitchfest partner CW+ and Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust’s CW Innovation Team, as well as the potential to run a project in the trust.

Chris Chaney, chief executive at CW+, said: “We’re delighted to partner once again on Rewired Pitchfest, championing innovation that transforms patient care and experience.

“The competition provides an invaluable platform to uncover and support the most innovative digital health start-ups and scale-ups, helping bring their ideas to life.

“I’m excited to return to the judging panel and see the forward-thinking projects that emerge from Pitchfest 2026.”

Contestants who progress from the initial round of applications will showcase their solution to the judges from the NHS, venture capitalists and digital health accelerators in virtual heats.

Four finalists will then battle it out live on stage at Rewired 2026, the UK’s largest digital health event, in March at the NEC in Birmingham.

Entrants must be start-ups or registered businesses which have been established for less than five years in their current guise. This does not preclude research work that has subsequently become a startup.

Entrants must also have health and social care services, medical devices, consumer or employee health and wellbeing or life sciences as their primary focus of activity.

Pitchfest has been running since 2019, receiving more than 550 applications from across the world. Previous winners have gone onto achieve significant growth, attract funding investment, scale within the NHS and enter new international markets.

Past winners include Asclepius MedTech Limited, CardMedic, Celsium, Daysix, Goggleminds, Hera, Limbic, Peppy Health, Testcard and Upfront Diagnostics.

The deadline for entries is 21 November 2025.

The shortlist for the virtual heats will then be announced on 7 January 2026, before the heats commence on 19 January 2026.

Finalists will then be announced on 18 February 2026 and be invited to take part in the live final at Rewired on 25 March 2026.

Apply for Pitchfest 2026 here.