Riyadh will host 54 healthcare startups and scaleups pitching to more than 250 senior investors as part of the NextGen Pitch Competition at Global Health Exhibition (GHE) 2026, organisers announced.
The competition, running alongside the exhibition from 26 to 29 October, connects founders with investors representing USD 65 billion in assets under management across 40 countries through the event’s Capital Xchange Programme. Participants span three sectors: digital health and AI in healthcare, bio and life sciences, and medtech. Winners will share a prize fund of SAR 100,000.
New this year, every semi-finalist and finalist will attend a Power Networking Breakfast with Capital Xchange investors, alongside one-to-one investor matchmaking and mentorship already offered in past editions.
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Capital Xchange will separately convene over 250 senior leaders, including representatives from sovereign wealth funds, LPs, family offices, and venture capital and private equity firms, through an invite-only programme of networking sessions, site visits and private discussions.
Rachel Sturgess, senior vice president at Tahaluf, said “Access remains one of the biggest barriers to growth for healthcare innovators, and that NextGen aims to connect founders with organisations able to invest in, adopt and scale their solutions.”
Zain Samdani, founder and CEO of ExoHeal and winner of the 2025 competition, said ‘The access NextGen provided sped up investor conversations that would otherwise have taken months.”
More than 1,000 investors are expected to attend Global Health Exhibition overall, alongside global exhibitors including Mayo Clinic, Karl Storz, Canon Medical Systems, BD, Stryker and Baxter.
Applications for NextGen 2026 are open at nextgen.globalhealthsaudi.com.
