Who are the ‘Bending Spoons’ of European HealthTech and MedTech?

Nelson Advisors
15 minutes ago
18 min read

Executive Summary: Platform Consolidators

The European healthcare technology landscape is currently navigating a period of profound structural transformation. Historically characterised by extreme fragmentation, a patchwork of national regulations, localised reimbursement models and legacy on-premise software, the sector has become the primary target for a new breed of operator: the "Platform Consolidator."

Bending Spoons, an Italian technology company, has become the archetype for this model in the consumer app space, acquiring assets like Evernote and Vimeo to integrate them into a singular, highly efficient operating machine.

This report suggests that while no single "clone" of Bending Spoons exists in European HealthTech, the philosophy has been adopted and adapted by three distinct archetypes: Sovereign Consolidators (infrastructure giants like CompuGroup Medical and Dedalus), Private Equity Platforms (financial aggregators like The Access Group, Main Capital, and Lanas Healthcare), and Venture Builders (consumer-health studios like Palta and HealthHero).

1. The Bending Spoons Paradigm: Defining the Operational Archetype

To identify the "Bending Spoons" of European HealthTech, one must first establish a precise definition of the Bending Spoons archetype. It is insufficient to merely look for companies that acquire other companies; the "Bending Spoons" model is a specific, sophisticated operational strategy that differentiates itself from traditional holding companies or conglomerates.

1.1 The Four Pillars of the Model

Based on the analysis of Bending Spoons' trajectory, from a bootstrap startup to a powerhouse acquiring assets like Evernote, Meetup, and Vimeo, four distinct operational pillars emerge. These pillars serve as the rubric against which European HealthTech players will be measured throughout this report.

1.1.1 Programmatic and Disciplined M&A

Bending Spoons does not engage in M&A opportunistically; it is programmatic. The company targets assets that have "proven product-market fit" but are "financially inefficient" or "stagnating". They avoid venture-scale risks, preferring "steady compounding" over "Blitzscaling". The acquisition criteria are rigorous, often focusing on distressed or undervalued assets where they can pay "fair prices" (typically 3-5x adjusted EBITDA) rather than inflated tech multiples.

1.1.2 The Centralised "Operating System"

Unlike a traditional holding company (eg. Berkshire Hathaway) that allows subsidiaries to operate autonomously, Bending Spoons integrates acquisitions into a centralised "platform." They have developed over 50 proprietary technologies, from A/B testing infrastructure to payment management systems, that are deployed across every portfolio company. This creates massive economies of scale; a new app does not need to build its own monetisation engine or SEO strategy, it simply plugs into the Bending Spoons "mainframe."

1.1.3 Radical Operational Efficiency (Operational Alpha)

The hallmark of the Bending Spoons model is the aggressive rationalisation of costs to drive "Operational Alpha." This involves "right-sizing" workforces and centralizing functions like product, payments and legal.They often run lean teams, managing $100M+ businesses with teams of just 40 people, to maximise individual impact and speed. This focus on EBITDA margin expansion (often leveraging up to 5x EBITDA) allows them to service the debt used for acquisitions and recycle cash flow into the next deal.

1.1.4 Human Capital Arbitrage

Bending Spoons employs a unique talent strategy: hiring "exclusively new graduates" and investing heavily in their development rather than hiring expensive, experienced executives. They view geographic strategy and talent density as core competitive advantages, treating talent allocation as a dynamic resource that can be moved rapidly to the highest-impact opportunities.

1.2 Translating the Model to Healthcare

Applying this consumer-tech model to the regulated world of European healthcare requires adaptation.

Regulatory Friction: You cannot "move fast and break things" when managing Electronic Patient Records (EPRs). Clinical safety governance prevents the rapid "sunset" of legacy features that Bending Spoons might execute in a note-taking app.
Customer Lock-in: In consumer apps, users churn if they dislike a price increase. In healthcare, hospitals and clinics face massive switching costs. This makes the "recurring revenue" even stickier, justifying the "Buy and Hold" strategy even more than in consumer tech.
Fragmentation: Europe is not one market; it is 30+ markets. A "Bending Spoons" in HealthTech must navigate the complexity of German DiGA reimbursement, French Ségur de la Santé funding, and UK NHS frameworks.

Therefore, the "Bending Spoons" of HealthTech appear in different guises:

The Infrastructure Roll-Up: Buying the operating systems of doctors and hospitals (CompuGroup, Dedalus).
The PE Platform: Using private equity capital to roll up niche verticals like social care or dentistry (Access Group, Lanas).
The Consumer Health Studio: Building apps on a shared data brain (Palta, HealthHero).

2. The Macro-Context: Why Europe? Why Now?

The emergence of these consolidators is not accidental; it is driven by specific macroeconomic and structural factors in the European market.

2.1 The Valuation Arbitrage Opportunity

Private Equity funds execute a "strategic arbitrage" in Europe. They acquire European HealthTech assets at lower entry multiples compared to the US, standardise operations to increase EBITDA and then sell them to global strategic buyers or list them at higher multiples.

The "Mid-Tier" Gap: There is a "forgotten mid-tier" of European companies earning $5M to $10M EBITDA. These are too small for global strategics but perfect for PE-backed roll-ups.
Multiple Expansion: By rolling up these small players into a larger platform, the valuation multiple expands from ~8-10x EBITDA (for small assets) to ~13x+ (for the consolidated platform).

2.2 The Fragmentation "Feature"

Europe’s "patchwork" of regulatory environments is often seen as a bug, but for consolidators, it is a feature.

Barriers to Entry: The complexity of complying with the German Digital Healthcare Act (DVG) or the French MaSanté 2022 strategy protects incumbents. Once a consolidator owns the certified software in a region, they have a defensible moat.
Inorganic Growth Necessity: Because organic growth across borders is so difficult (due to local regulations), the only way to scale across Europe is through M&A. This forces the "Bending Spoons" model of acquiring local leaders rather than building from scratch.

2.3 The Shift to Private Equity

The data indicates a massive shift of HealthTech assets from public markets to private ownership. Public markets often penalise the debt and integration costs associated with aggressive roll-ups. Private Equity, however, thrives on it.

Delistings: Major players like CompuGroup Medical (via CVC) and Idox (via Long Path) are moving private to execute their strategies away from quarterly earnings pressure.
Dry Powder: With early-stage VC funding plummeting, late-stage PE and "Buy and Build" strategies have become the primary liquidity pathway for founders.

3. The Sovereign Consolidators: The Infrastructure Architects

These companies are the industrial-scale equivalents of Bending Spoons. They operate the mission-critical infrastructure, the digital "rails" of European healthcare.

3.1 CompuGroup Medical (CGM): The "Doctor's Desktop" Monopolist

CompuGroup Medical (CGM) stands as the preeminent example of vertical market consolidation in the DACH region and beyond. Headquartered in Germany, CGM has spent decades executing a strategy that mirrors the Bending Spoons focus on recurring revenue and market dominance, albeit in the B2B sector.

3.1.1 The Consolidation of Ambulatory Care

CGM’s primary thesis is the domination of the Ambulatory Information System (AIS) market, the software used by General Practitioners (GPs) and specialists to run their practices.

Market Share as a Moat: In Germany, CGM’s market share in the AIS sector is formidable. By acquiring dozens of small, local software competitors over the years, they have created a scenario where switching costs for doctors are prohibitively high.
US Expansion: Mirroring the global ambition of tech consolidators, CGM executed a major move into the US market with the acquisition of eMDs in 2020. This deal, along with the acquisitions of Schuyler House (lab software) and Medicus LIS, demonstrates a strategy of vertical integration. They are not just buying more GP software; they are buying the adjacent workflows (diagnostics, labs) to capture more of the value chain.

3.1.2 The Pivot to Data: "New Line" and "Insight Health"

A critical evolution in the Bending Spoons model is the monetisation of the platform's data. CGM is actively executing this pivot.

The Data Brokerage Strategy: The acquisition of a 20% stake in New Line (an Italian market analysis firm for pharmacy consumption data) and the acquisition of INSIGHT Health reveal the endgame. CGM is transitioning from a pure software vendor to a data platform. By aggregating anonymised prescription and diagnosis data from its thousands of AIS and PIS (Pharmacy Information Systems) installations, CGM creates a high-margin data product to sell to pharmaceutical companies and payers. This creates a "double monetisation" engine: the doctor pays for the software, and the industry pays for the data the doctor generates.

3.1.3 The Strategic Delisting with CVC Capital Partners

In 2025, the trajectory of CGM shifted significantly. CVC Capital Partners, a leading global private markets manager, executed a strategic investment and subsequent delisting offer for CGM.

The Rationale: Public markets demand quarterly growth. The Bending Spoons model—which often involves sacrificing short-term revenue to restructure costs or migrate tech stacks—is better executed in private. The partnership with CVC (who holds approx. 28% while the Gotthardt family retains control) provides the "patient capital" required for this transformation.
Capital for M&A: CVC brings extensive experience in "platform" buyouts (e.g., Douglas, DKV Mobility). Their involvement signals a likely acceleration of M&A activity, potentially targeting larger, more complex assets that CGM could not have swallowed alone as a public entity.

3.2 Dedalus Group: The Pan-European Hospital Titan

If CGM owns the doctor's office, Dedalus Group owns the hospital. Based in Italy, the home of Bending Spoons, Dedalus has grown into a top-tier European player through a series of "mega-mergers" orchestrated by its private equity owners.

3.2.1 The "Agfa" Transformation

The defining moment for Dedalus was the acquisition of Agfa-Gevaert’s healthcare IT business for nearly €1 billion.This acquisition is analogous to Bending Spoons acquiring Evernote or Vimeo, buying a massive, established incumbent to achieve instant scale.

Scale: The deal gave Dedalus a dominant position in the "DACH" region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland), France, and Brazil, instantly making it one of the largest Health IT companies in the world.
The "D4P" Platform: Dedalus is working to consolidate its fragmented portfolio of acquired legacy systems (like ORBIS, Hydra, etc.) into a unified platform strategy known as "Dedalus 4 Patient" (D4P). This aligns with the Bending Spoons focus on centralisation, although the pace in hospital IT is necessarily slower than in consumer apps.

3.2.2 The Capital Engine: Ardian and ADIA

The "Bending Spoons" model requires capital. Dedalus has access to some of the deepest pockets in the world.

Ardian: The French private investment house Ardian holds a majority stake (approx. 92% indirectly) and has supported Dedalus since 2016. Their "buy-and-build" expertise has been the primary driver of Dedalus's expansion.
ADIA: In 2021, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) acquired a significant minority stake. This influx of sovereign wealth capital provides the "dry powder" needed to continue the consolidation of the European market, potentially targeting remaining independent players or competitors.
Management Shift: The appointment of Alberto Calcagno (former CEO of Fastweb) and Andrea Fiumicelli signals a shift in corporate DNA. Moving from a founder-led software company to a management team with backgrounds in telecoms and large-scale infrastructure suggests a focus on operational efficiency, standardisation, and margin improvement—key tenets of the Bending Spoons philosophy.

3.3 Tietoevry Care: The Nordic Rationaliser

Tietoevry represents the consolidation of the Nordic IT services market, formed by the merger of the Finnish Tieto and the Norwegian EVRY.

3.3.1 The "Demerger" Value Play

Tietoevry is currently executing a strategic separation of its businesses. By spinning off or selling its "Tech Services" (consulting/infrastructure) division, it aims to focus on its high-margin software product units: Tietoevry Care, Tietoevry Banking and Tietoevry Industry.

Focus on IP: This move is critical. The Bending Spoons model is predicated on high-margin Intellectual Property (IP), not low-margin services. By shedding the consulting arm, Tietoevry Care becomes a pure-play software consolidator in the health and social care space.
Acquisition of MentorMate: To support this software focus, Tietoevry acquired MentorMate, a digital engineering firm with 1,000+ employees. This acquisition provides the engineering "muscle" needed to modernise the legacy health platforms they own, a strategy comparable to Bending Spoons' aggressive hiring of top engineering talent to refactor acquired codebases.

4. The Private Equity Algorithms: The Financial Bending Spoons

While the companies above have their own brands, there is a class of "Platform Vehicles" created and managed entirely by Private Equity firms. These entities are arguably the purest implementation of the Bending Spoons model: they are financial algorithms designed to roll up software assets, extract synergies, and compound value.

4.1 The Access Group: The "Everything App" for UK Business

The Access Group is a titan of the UK software market, valued at £9.2 billion and backed by Hg, TA Associates, and GIC. While it serves multiple verticals (HR, Hospitality, Legal), its Health, Support and Care (HSC) division is a massive, self-contained consolidator.

4.1.1 The Relentless M&A Machine

Access Group’s acquisition pace is staggering, completing 20 acquisitions in a single year. In the health and care sector, their strategy is to buy every component of the "Integrated Care System" (ICS).

Servelec: The £223.9M acquisition of Servelec was the keystone deal. Servelec provides the EPRs for community health and mental health trusts, as well as the case management software for social care. This connected Access to the NHS backbone.
Adam HTT: Acquired to control the commissioning and procurement of care, Access now owns the software that local governments use to buy services from care providers.
Alcuris & Oysta: These acquisitions moved Access into the "Technology Enabled Care" (TEC) market, smart alarms, fall detectors and remote monitoring. This moves the platform from purely administrative software to clinical and patient safety monitoring.
Vincere & FastTrack: Acquisitions in the recruitment space allow Access to offer staffing solutions to the very care agencies that use their rostering software.

4.1.2 The "Access Workspace" Integration Layer

The genius of Access Group and its strongest link to Bending Spoons, is Access Workspace.

The Single Pane of Glass: Access does not let acquired companies rot in silos. They force integration into "Access Workspace," a unified single-sign-on (SSO) platform with a shared UI/UX.
Cross-Selling as a Science: Once a customer is on Workspace, cross-selling is frictionless. A care home using Access for payroll sees the "Access Medication Management" module right on their dashboard. This drives the "Net Revenue Retention" (NRR) metrics that PE investors crave.
Centralised "Success": Access centralises functions like "Employee Success" and "Customer Success", stripping these costs out of the acquired entities to improve EBITDA margins immediately post-acquisition.

4.2 Main Capital Partners: The "Performance Excellence" Architects

Main Capital Partners is a specialised software investor focused on the Benelux, DACH, and Nordics. They are not just investors; they are operators. Their approach to "building software groups" is practically scientific.

4.2.1 The "Charly" Buy-and-Build Strategy

Main Capital identifies a "platform" asset and then systematically acquires competitors to bolt onto it.

SDB Groep (Benelux): Main acquired SDB (HR/Payroll for healthcare) and transformed it into a full-suite provider for the social care market. They bolted on childcare software, disability care planning tools, and e-learning modules, creating a comprehensive suite that no standalone competitor could match.
Oiva Health (Nordics): Formerly VideoVisit, Main rebranded the company to Oiva Health and used it to consolidate the "virtual care" market in Finland and Denmark. This created a dominant player in remote patient monitoring and digital social care.
Enovation: Another Main platform focused on secure healthcare communication.

4.2.2 Operational Alpha: The "Main" Playbook

Main Capital’s differentiator is its "Performance Excellence" team.

Standardisation: They have a standardised playbook for everything: from how to price SaaS contracts to how to structure international sales teams.
Community: They organize "Main Software 50" awards and CTO days to share best practices across the portfolio. This ecosystem approach ensures that lessons learned in one company (eg, SDB) are instantly transmitted to another (e.g., Oiva), mimicking the "Palta Brain" or Bending Spoons' "shared knowledge" advantage.
Continuation Funds: To avoid the pressure to sell good assets too early, Main recently raised a €520 million continuation fund. This allows them to hold high-performing assets like SDB and Björn Lundén for longer, compounding value over a decade rather than a traditional 3-5 year PE cycle. This aligns perfectly with the "permanent capital" mindset often associated with successful consolidators like Constellation Software.

4.3 Lanas Healthcare (Clanwilliam Group): The New Challenger

In late 2025, a new "Bending Spoons" contender officially entered the arena: Lanas Healthcare.

4.3.1 The Origin Story

Lanas was formed through the acquisition of Clanwilliam Group by TA Associates. Clanwilliam was already a significant consolidator, having spent 25 years rolling up pharmacy and practice management software across the UK, Ireland, and ANZ.

4.3.2 The "Platform" Rebirth

TA Associates (who also back The Access Group) saw the potential to supercharge this model.

Rebranding & Recapitalisation: They rebranded the group to "Lanas Healthcare Technology" to signal a new era and injected over $115 Million in committed M&A funding.
The Mission: Founder Howard Beggs explicitly stated the goal is to "triple the size of the business" through organic growth and targeted acquisitions.
Vertical Focus: Lanas is structured around core verticals: Pharmacy, Primary/Community Care, and Specialists. By focusing on these specific niches, they can acquire "best-of-breed" point solutions and integrate them into a broader suite, creating a "platform of platforms."
The TA Playbook: The involvement of TA Associates suggests that Lanas will likely follow the Access Group playbook: aggressive M&A, rapid integration, and a focus on recurring revenue metrics.

5. The Consumer & Telehealth Platforms: The "App Store" Aggregators

These companies operate in the consumer-facing (B2C) or B2B2C space. They are fighting for the "Digital Front Door", the app on the patient's phone. Their model mimics Bending Spoons' consumer app strategy but is applied to clinical services.

5.1 HealthHero: The "Asset-Light" Clinical Consolidator

HealthHero, founded by Ranjan Singh, is built on the thesis that digital healthcare needs to be consolidated to be efficient.

5.1.1 The Regional Roll-Up

HealthHero’s strategy acknowledges that healthcare is local. You cannot simply launch one app for all of Europe. Instead, they acquire the local champion in each market and integrate them on the backend.

UK: Acquired Doctorlink (a leading digital triage and symptom checker). This gave them the "front door" technology used by millions of NHS patients.
France: Acquired Qare (a leading video consultation provider).
Germany: Acquired Fernarzt.
Ireland: Acquired MyClinic.

5.1.2 The "Chronos" Platform

HealthHero is not just a holding company. They are deploying a GenAI-powered platform called Chronos.

Integration: Chronos is designed to be the "connective tissue" between these acquisitions. It unifies the clinical pathways, allowing a patient who enters via the Doctorlink triage engine to be seamlessly routed to a Qare doctor or a Fernarzt prescription service.
Efficiency: By using AI for triage and pre-consultation data gathering, HealthHero aims to reduce the cost of clinical delivery, a classic Bending Spoons efficiency play.

5.2 Palta: The Co-Founding Studio

Palta is the closest entity to Bending Spoons in terms of corporate culture and product focus (mobile-first consumer apps).

5.2.1 The "Palta Brain" Advantage

Palta operates as a "co-founding" studio. They identify high potential niches and build or accelerate companies to dominate them.

Portfolio: Their portfolio includes Flo (the #1 global period tracker with >200M users and >$100M ARR), Simple (intermittent fasting), and Zing (AI fitness).
Shared Infrastructure: The "Palta Brain" platform is their version of Bending Spoons' proprietary tech stack. It provides centralised services for:
- User Acquisition (UA): Sharing data on ad performance across apps.
- Predictive Analytics: Using data from Flo to predict churn in Simple.
- Monetisation: Standardizing subscription models and pricing experiments.
Operational VC: Unlike a standard VC that writes a check and attends board meetings, Palta provides the "operating system" for growth. This allows their portfolio companies to scale much faster and with leaner teams than standalone startups.

5.3 Redcare Pharmacy: The "Beyond-Pill" Ecosystem

Redcare Pharmacy (formerly Shop Apotheke Europe) is a publicly traded company executing a massive pivot through M&A.

5.3.1 From Retailer to Platform

Redcare realized that selling boxes of pills is a low-margin, commoditized business. The real value lies in "Medication Management."

SmartPatient (MyTherapy): Redcare acquired the developers of MyTherapy, one of the world's leading medication adherence apps. This app is used by millions of chronic patients to track their meds.
MedApp: A similar acquisition in the Netherlands to capture the adherence market there.
First A: An acquisition in the "Quick Commerce" space to enable 30-minute delivery.

5.3.2 The Strategic Logic

By owning the app that reminds the patient to take their pill (MyTherapy), Redcare owns the moment of consumption. They can then seamlessly prompt the patient to refill the prescription via Redcare Pharmacy.

This creates a "closed loop" ecosystem that increases Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) and retention, moving the business model closer to a recurring revenue tech platform and further away from a traditional retailer.

6. The Vertical Market HoldCos: The "Forever" Owners

Volaris Group represents the "Constellation Software" model, the spiritual ancestor of Bending Spoons. Volaris is an operating group of Constellation Software (CSI).

6.1 Volaris Group: The "Buy and Hold" Discipline

Volaris is a "perpetual owner." They do not buy to flip; they buy to hold forever.

Acquisition Pace: In 2025 alone, Volaris acquired AskCody (Denmark), Maze Feedback (Norway), Surveypal (Finland), and Bit Soft (Romania). Their appetite is insatiable.
Healthcare Portfolio: Their healthcare vertical includes:
- Hospedia: The UK's provider of bedside terminals in NHS hospitals. A classic "unloved" asset, hardware-heavy, legacy, but with sticky, recurring revenue.
- Adapt IT: A South African/Global software group acquired in 2022.
- Saniso: Healthcare information management.
The Anti-Centralisation: Unlike Access Group or Bending Spoons, Volaris often leaves acquired companies to operate autonomously ("decentralised business model").They focus on financial discipline, teaching the managers how to allocate capital and price products, rather than enforcing a single tech stack. However, the financial engine (recycling cash flow into new deals) is identical to Bending Spoons.

7. Comparative Analysis: Mapping the DNA

To understand the ecosystem, we can map these players against the key Bending Spoons traits.

The "Bending Spoons" Alignment Matrix

Company	Category	"Bending Spoons" Trait	Integration Strategy	Key Backer
The Access Group	PE Platform	Aggressive Integration	"Access Workspace" (SSO/UI)	Hg, TA Associates, GIC
Main Capital Partners	PE Platform	Operational Alpha	"Performance Excellence" Playbook	Self-Managed Funds
Lanas Healthcare	PE Platform	Roll-Up Vehicle	Vertical Integration (Pharmacy/Care)	TA Associates
HealthHero	Venture Builder	Digital Front Door	"Chronos" (GenAI Platform)	Marcol, Claret Capital
Palta	Venture Builder	Shared Tech Stack	"Palta Brain" (Data/UA)	VNV Global, Target Global
CompuGroup Medical	Sovereign	Market Dominance	Data Platform (New Line/Insight)	CVC, Gotthardt Family
Dedalus Group	Sovereign	Scale via Mega-Deals	"D4P" (Dedalus 4 Patient)	Ardian, ADIA
Redcare Pharmacy	Consumer	Ecosystem Lock-in	Adherence Apps (MyTherapy)	Public (MDAX)
Volaris Group	HoldCo	Capital Allocation	Decentralized / Financial Discipline	Constellation Software

8. Deep Insights: Emerging Trends and Future Outlook

The analysis of these entities reveals several "second-order" insights that define the future of the sector.

8.1 The "Private Equityisation" of European HealthTech

The most aggressive consolidators are no longer public companies.

Trend: Public markets have struggled to value the "roll-up" strategy correctly, often penalising the debt and integration costs required to build these platforms.
Response: Private Equity firms have stepped in to take these companies private (e.g., CompuGroup/CVC, Idox/Long Path, Servelec/Montagu/Access). This allows them to execute the "Bending Spoons" playbook, cutting costs, migrating tech and hiking prices, away from the scrutiny of quarterly earnings calls.
Implication: Innovation in European HealthTech is shifting from "feature innovation" (new startups) to "business model innovation" (PE-backed platforms). The winners of the next decade will likely be portfolio companies of Hg, TA, or Ardian.

8.2 The "Digi-Physical" Convergence

Pure digital health has hit a ceiling. You cannot fix a broken leg via Zoom.

Trend: Consolidators are moving to own the physical delivery layer. Kry bought clinics. Cera Care is buying robotics and home care agencies. Redcare is buying delivery logistics.
Insight: The "Bending Spoons" of healthcare will not just be a software company; it will be a hybrid operator that uses software to manage physical assets (clinics, robots, pills) more efficiently than incumbents. Operational Alpha will come from automating the physical world, not just the digital one.

8.3 Data as the "New Oil" for Consolidators

The software is becoming a commodity; the data is the asset.

Trend: Companies like CompuGroup Medical and Redcare Pharmacy are explicitly pivoting to data monetisation models.
Mechanism: By owning the operating system of the doctor or the patient's adherence app, these companies sit on "Real-World Evidence" (RWE) data that is invaluable to Pharma.
Future: We may see a future where the software is given away for free (or heavily discounted) to capture the data rights. This would disrupt the traditional SaaS model and favor the largest consolidators who have the scale to aggregate statistically significant datasets.

8.4 The Rise of "Sovereign" Capital

The entry of ADIA (Abu Dhabi) into Dedalus and GIC (Singapore) into The Access Group signals a new phase.

Insight: Sovereign Wealth Funds are looking for "infrastructure-like" returns. HealthTech consolidators, with their sticky recurring revenue and essential nature, fit this profile perfectly.
Impact: This lowers the cost of capital for these consolidators, allowing them to overpay for strategic assets and squeeze out smaller financial buyers. It cements the dominance of the "Mega-Platforms."

9. Conclusion

The "Bending Spoons" of European HealthTech is not a single entity, but a rapidly evolving typology.

For the Consumer, it is Palta and HealthHero, who are using shared data brains to build the "Super Apps" of health.

For the Hospital, it is Dedalus, utilising massive sovereign capital to roll up the continent's infrastructure.

For the Doctor, it is CompuGroup Medical, pivoting from software to data.

And for the Market itself, it is The Access Group and Main Capital, the financial engines that are relentlessly systematising the sector.

These companies share the core Bending Spoons DNA: a belief that through scale, centralization, and operational rigor, they can generate value that far exceeds the sum of the acquired parts. As the European market matures and capital remains expensive, this consolidation wave is only just beginning.

Nelson Advisors > MedTech and HealthTech M&A

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