OpenWide Named Most Investable Innovation at the Health Innovation Wessex Accelerator

We are delighted to share some news. Last week, OpenWide pitched at the Health Innovation Wessex accelerator showcase in front of a panel of six experts from across the healthcare space — and we were proud to walk away with the Most Investable Innovation award.

It was the culmination of a competitive application process and an intensive six-week programme, with nine health innovations pitching on the day. To be singled out as the most investable of the cohort is a genuine milestone for OpenWide, and a moment we wanted to mark and share with the practices and patients who make what we do possible.

About the programme

The award came through the SHIFT programme — Scaling Health Innovation through Funding and Transformation — delivered by Health Innovation Wessex with support from the Office for Life Sciences. SHIFT is designed to help the most promising health innovations become investment-ready and scale their impact across the NHS and the wider health system.

Over six weeks, the programme put our proposition through its paces: the clinical problem we are solving, the strength of our model, our route to market, and our ability to scale. Pitching to a panel of six healthcare experts on showcase day was the final test — and being named Most Investable Innovation told us the fundamentals of what we are building stand up to serious scrutiny.

A proposition that works for everyone in dentistry

What the process reaffirmed, more than anything, is that OpenWide is building something that works for every side of the dental market. Access to dentistry in the UK is under real strain, and the tools patients and practices have to find each other have not kept pace. That is the gap OpenWide exists to close.

1. 1

   For patients

   We are bringing easier, quicker and more transparent access to dental appointments. Instead of ringing practice after practice to ask who is taking patients and what it will cost, patients can search, compare live availability and pricing, and book real care in a few steps.

2. 2

   For dental clinics

   We are helping practices acquire new patients and fill diary gaps more easily. OpenWide connects directly to practice management systems — including Dentally, CareStack and Carestream R4 — so confirmed online bookings flow straight into the clinic diary, turning empty slots into booked appointments.

Why "most investable" matters

An accelerator award is not the goal in itself — but "most investable" is a signal we care about. It means an expert panel looked at the dental access problem, at our model for solving it, and at our ability to grow, and concluded that OpenWide is a business worth backing.

That matters because the change we want to make in dentistry only happens at scale. The more practices we connect and the more patients we help, the more we can do to make finding and booking dental care simple, transparent and fair. Recognition like this helps us get there faster.

What comes next

We are hugely grateful to the Health Innovation Wessex team and to the panel for their time, their challenge and their belief in what we are building. Winning Most Investable Innovation is an endorsement of the whole team's work and of every practice that has come on board with us so far.

Now the real work continues. We look forward to working further alongside the Health Innovation Wessex team to make dentistry more accessible — for patients who deserve easier access to care, and for the clinics working hard to provide it.