America at 250: A New Chapter for UK HealthTech

2026 marks 250 years since the United States declared independence. For UK HealthTech, the milestone is more than a history lesson. It is a good moment to look at where the transatlantic health relationship stands, and what the next chapter looks like for British founders, executives, and investors looking westward.

The UK and US have shaped health innovation together for as long as the industry has existed. Fleming discovered penicillin in London in 1928, and US firms scaled it into a wartime necessity. The structure of DNA was published in 1953 by a transatlantic team. Good ideas have always moved in both directions across the ocean.

What has changed is the speed. The US has rebuilt itself into the most active digital health market on earth, and UK HealthTech is sitting right in the middle of that wave.

A market that has grown back into its size

The scale of the US opportunity is hard to overstate. National health expenditure reached $5.3 trillion in 2024, and is projected to climb to $8.6 trillion by 2033. By then, healthcare will make up more than 20 percent of US GDP.

The venture story tracks alongside it. US digital health startups raised $14.2 billion in 2025, a 35 percent jump on 2024 and the highest annual total since 2022. AI-focused companies captured 54 percent of that funding, up from 37 percent the year before.

UK companies are already part of the story. Recursion acquired UK-founded Exscientia in 2024 in a deal worth roughly $688 million. London-based Autolus won FDA approval for its cell therapy AUCATZYL. Cera, the UK’s leading home care provider, reached around $500 million in annualised revenues in 2025. UK HealthTech is not just present in the US. It is shaping deals at the top of the market.

Why Americans take new ideas with both hands

Behind all that capital and dealmaking sits something simpler. Americans adopt new health technology faster than almost anywhere, and it comes down to who they are.

The country was built by people who left everything familiar behind and crossed an ocean to start again. Movers, shakers, and people happy to bet on themselves. That selection effect never really faded. The appetite for risk that brought people to America still shapes how Americans do business today.

For a HealthTech founder, that culture is a gift. American buyers and investors are early adopters. When they see a product that works, they tend to take it with both hands rather than wait for someone else to go first. A new diagnostic, a new care model, a new AI tool. The instinct is to try it, not to delay.

This is also the root of the cultural differences British founders notice. The directness, the speed, the comfort with risk, the willingness to back something unproven. These are not quirks to manage around. They are the reason the US is such a good place to build a health business.

The differences worth planning for

That openness works in your favour. Other differences need more planning. The gaps that catch UK founders off guard are rarely the obvious ones. NHS commissioning bears little resemblance to US payer dynamics. MHRA and FDA pathways diverge in ways that affect product timing. Selling into a US health system needs people who speak the language of value-based care, not just clinical results.

None of this is a reason to delay. It is a reason to plan early, while the team still has the bandwidth to do it properly.

Why boots on the ground matter

Here is what we hear most from founders in 2026. The question is no longer whether the US is the right market. It is when and how. And the answer almost always comes back to people.

There is a simple truth behind US expansion. You cannot grow a market from 3,000 miles away. Time zones, distance, and a calendar full of UK commitments make it almost impossible to build real momentum remotely. Growth happens when someone is in the room, taking the meetings, and chasing the opportunities as they appear.

Putting people on the ground also sends a signal. American partners, payers, and investors want to see that you are serious about the market, not testing it from the other side of the Atlantic. A US team tells them you are committed and here to stay. That signal opens doors that a UK address alone never will.

Then there is the talent itself. Setting up a US entity is well understood. Hiring the right people is the work that takes time. Finding a Chief Medical Officer or a VP of Commercial who knows the US system takes judgement and attention, and the right hire is worth the wait.

Employing people in the US

Employing in the US is where most expansion plans get stuck. Payroll, benefits, tax, and employment law all work differently, and they often change state by state. What looks like a single market is really fifty of them. It is easy to underestimate, and expensive to get wrong.

You do not need to solve all of that before you hire your first person. You need a partner who already has. That is the difference between spending six months building an HR and legal function, and having someone selling in the US next quarter.

How we help

This is the work Foothold America does every day. We help British companies set up US entities, hire their first US employees, and run payroll, benefits, and compliance properly from day one. You get boots on the ground without building the back office from scratch.

For founders weighing the timing, the case for the next 12 to 24 months is unusually strong. Capital is moving again. The regulatory environment is maturing. US appetite for AI-enabled health innovation is at a high, and American buyers are ready to say yes.

America at 250 is a milestone worth celebrating. It is also a reminder that the most interesting decades in the US-UK health relationship are still ahead of us. UK HealthTech founders who plan it well, time it right, and put the right people on the ground have a real chance at being the names we remember in the next chapter.

When you are ready to think seriously about the US, our team is ready to help. When you are ready, we are too.