From femtech to food allergy: Discovery Spark welcomes twelve new health innovators
Sandwich, UK — 10 June 2026: Discovery Park, Kent’s science and innovation hub, has launched the seventh edition of its Discovery Spark accelerator programme, welcoming 12 startups to its campus in Sandwich.
The seventh cohort is themed around innovations in health, with startups selected based on the need for their innovation, the uniqueness of their solution, and the strength of their team. Throughout June, the selected founders will be attending specialist-led sessions in both Kent and London, focused on investor readiness, covering essential business topics from tax and finance, legal and governance essentials, and risk mitigation to performance and communications insights. The programme culminates with a competitive pitch day on 8 July to a panel of active investors and health specialists.
First launched in 2023, the business growth programme has already supported 62 companies and 96 founders across six previous cohorts, with alumni securing £5.5m in UKRI funding and counting. Spark is designed to provide opportunities for startups to grow a network of peers, mentors and expert advisors, as part of a friendly and collaborative cohort.
Programme Lead Renos Savva, Head of Innovation and Venture Development at Discovery Park, commented:
“Cohort 7.0 brings together a strong and diverse group of founders — tackling challenges across human and animal health, from chronic conditions to antimicrobial resistance and food allergy. The breadth and quality of applications we’ve received this year has been remarkable, and that’s reflected in the twelve companies we’ve selected. Over the coming weeks, we’ll be working intensively with every team to sharpen their investor narrative, stress-test their commercial strategy, and make sure they leave as investor-ready SMEs, increasing the odds of these fantastic innovations making their way into the hands of patients.”
Cohort 7.0 includes four women’s health focused startups, aiming to close the gender health gap and reduce the persistent diagnosis delays that affect millions of women across the UK.
- Ainia Empower: A femtech app connecting women to clinicians trained in gender-informed care.
- Avline Health: An at-home vaginal microbiome testing providing insight into urogenital, fertility, pregnancy, and hormonal health.
- OvaJoy: A digital health platform supporting people living with Polyendocrine Metabolic Ovarian Syndrome (PMOS, formerly PCOS).
- Vina Health: A digital clinical intelligence platform, aiming to close the 9-year average diagnosis delay for women with chronic pelvic conditions, endometriosis, fibroids, PMOS, and adenomyosis.
The Discovery Spark accelerator is open to UK-based science and technology startups and SMEs from all disciplines, with different themed cohorts throughout the year. Learn more about Discovery Spark and register interest for the next cohort: https://discovery-park.co.uk/lp/discovery-spark/
Details of 12 companies taking part in Discovery Spark Cohort 7.0 (listed alphabetically)
Ainia is a femtech platform built to close the gender pain gap by connecting women to clinicians trained in gender-informed care. Through an app, patients can track symptoms, identify patterns, and arrive at appointments with clinically meaningful data.
For clinicians, Ainia provides CPD-accredited training, certification in women’s pain and chronic conditions, and access to patient-generated insights before every consultation.
As the platform grows, so does a proprietary longitudinal dataset, creating the foundation for future diagnostic tools, clinical research, and population-level insights.
Avline Health is a women’s health life sciences company developing PelviBiomeTM, an at-home vaginal microbiome test and support pathway providing personalised, science-backed insight into urogenital, fertility, pregnancy, and hormonal health.
PelviBiomeTM helps women move from recurring symptoms, unclear explanations, and repeated short-term fixes towards clearer, evidence-informed conversations with healthcare professionals. The pathway combines discreet at-home sample collection, accredited laboratory analysis, personalised reporting, and expert-led interpretation.
Dermalere provides personalised prebiotic skincare based on a consumer’s skin microbiome. This is achieved through best-in-class testing, sequencing the skin microbiome using deep shotgun metagenomics. Dermalere then delivers personalised skincare products as a subscription model, using a proprietary model to match microbiome data with active ingredients (prebiotics) and targeted microbial formulations. The valuable microbiome data generated can also be monetised, driving the identification of novel biomarkers and design of small molecules.
EquiCheckAI
EquiCheckAI is a B2B company for the equine industry, using intelligence to bring immediate benefits to horse care, performance and welfare. Using proprietary technology and AI systems, the company converts daily observations and real world evidence into defensible longitudinal data to improve horse welfare, performance and risk decision making.
IgEDAPT is a biotechnology company developing next-generation therapeutic approaches for food allergy, aiming to address the challenges associated with real-world accidental exposures. Food allergies affect millions of people worldwide and place a significant physical and emotional burden on individuals and families. IgEDAPT is focused on developing innovative approaches intended to support people living with food allergies in everyday life.
Inherit Health is creating a secure-by-design, privacy-first digital ecosystem built to bridge the gaps between fragmented patient experiences, clinical decision-making, and research insight. The ecosystem comprises three integrated platforms: a patient-facing Personal Health Record with an app-based UI; a web-based information conduit for GPs; and a ‘smart’ research portal that enables frontline clinical research organisations.
In2cell Biosciences is building a platform to detect DNA breaks at single-molecule
resolution. Named POLEX™, their advanced platform uses long-read sequencing to read single- and double-strand breaks directly on native DNA, with no PCR and no antibodies. The same read also carries epigenetic information, providing DNA break maps and methylation context from one sample. The company provides B2B services and support
for preclinical genotoxicity testing and CRISPR off-target characterisation in gene therapy.
Modular Clinton Global (MCG) Limited
MCG is a technology company specializing in supply chain traceability, carbon visibility, and the ‘Physical Internet.’ Through Innovate UK funded projects, they have demonstrated experience in maritime shipping digitization and decarbonization, leveraging AI and blockchain — and are keen to explore how these capabilities could apply within health and life sciences supply chains. They plan to commercialize “Jelly Ice Cube”, a novel cryo-packaging for sensitive biological supply chain resilience and sustainability.
OvaJoy is a digital health platform supporting people with Polyendocrine Metabolic Ovarian Syndrome (PMOS, formerly PCOS). OvaJoy provides a personalised platform that integrates lifestyle tracking, symptom monitoring, and optional at-home biomarker testing to help people better understand and manage their condition. Currently migrating to a mobile app, OvaJoy is developing a novel approach by combining multiple data sources to deliver structured, evidence-informed guidance for lifestyle interventions.
Soule is a healthtech company developing an intelligent neurohaptic platform to help support nervous system regulation, stress recovery and sleep. Combining gentle touch-based stimulation through the feet with synchronised audio, Soule is creating a body-led multi-sensory experience designed to help people feel calmer and recover more effectively.
VacTimmune is developing next-generation vaccines for antimicrobial-resistant bacterial infections. Antibiotics are becoming less effective, and for infections such
as Pseudomonas aeruginosa, patients are running out of reliable treatment options. VacTimmune identifies vaccine antigens that activate both antibody and cellular immune responses, driving the coordinated immunity actually needed for effective bacterial clearance. VacTimmune’s wider ambition is to build a scalable vaccine company capable of developing vaccines for infections that antibiotics can no longer reliably treat.
Vina Health is a digital clinical intelligence platform closing the 9-year average diagnosis delay for women with chronic pelvic conditions, endometriosis, fibroids, PMOS, and adenomyosis. To support women with articulating months of complex, fluctuating symptoms, Vina’s app allows women to log their symptoms in under 60 seconds daily. The platform generates pattern intelligence across their cycle and produces a structured pre-appointment clinical summary with the longitudinal evidence a doctor needs to act at the first appointment, not the fifteenth.
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About Discovery Spark
Discovery Spark is Discovery Park’s accelerator for innovative life science SMEs. This business growth programme bridges the gap between science and business by delivering commercial insights and investor readiness. Through specialist-led sessions and mentoring, founders leave with tools, mindset, strategy, network and personal resilience to transform groundbreaking ideas into a thriving, investment-ready company. Now in its seventh cohort, the programme has already supported 62 companies and 96 founders since launching in 2023.
Alumni companies have collectively secured £5.5m in UKRI funding, and 20 of the startups have now taken physical lab or office space in locations across the UK, from Kent to Northern Ireland, creating jobs and additional economic benefits.
Discovery Spark is led by life science entrepreneur Renos Savva, Head of Innovation and Venture Development at Discovery Park. The Spark programme draws on Renos’ network breadth and experience: a former University of London molecular research team leader and bio-business programme director, he patented novel technology in 2001 to found, incubate and spin-out Domainex, recognised by the Financial Times as Europe’s fastest-growing drug discovery CRO in 2018, successfully exiting the company in 2021.
Discovery Spark is more than an accelerator — it is the ignition point for founders ready to turn scientific promise into real-world impact.
To register interest for future cohorts, visit: https://discovery-park.co.uk/lp/discovery-spark/
About Discovery Park
Discovery Park is one of the UK’s leading science and innovation campuses, providing a dynamic base for life science companies ranging from early-stage start-ups to global corporations. Located in Kent, with excellent connectivity to London and Europe, Discovery Park offers an ideal environment for businesses to start, scale and succeed.
With more than 180 companies on site including Pfizer, Asymchem, Cummins, ZeroAvia, GrowUp Farms, Viatris, Concept Life Sciences, Resolian, Psyros Diagnostics and York Bio, Discovery Park is home to a thriving ecosystem of innovators. The 220-acre site offers cutting-edge laboratories, flexible office and manufacturing space, and a highly supportive infrastructure tailored to the needs of science and technology businesses.
As part of its commitment to nurturing innovation, Discovery Park is home to CoLab, a shared laboratory facility developed in partnership with Canterbury Christ Church University, offering flexible bench space and technical support to early-stage companies.
Recognised as a Life Science Opportunity Zone, Discovery Park benefits from a robust utilities infrastructure, 100% renewable electricity, and a strong pipeline of local STEM talent, underpinned by partnerships with leading academic institutions. With its strategic location, vibrant community, and access to finance through its own fund, Discovery Park Ventures, the campus plays a central role in Kent’s flourishing science and technology cluster and is an extension of the UK’s prestigious Golden Triangle.
Discover more: discovery-park.co.uk
E: [email protected], T: 01304 614060.
Media contact:
Sophie Dufour, [email protected]
