Sifted is the FT-backed chronicle of European startup ambition, and its healthtech coverage is read by VCs and founders, not patients. Pitching Sifted Healthtech reporters means selling a European market story with a business consequence — not a product milestone.

This guide covers scope, targeting, angles, and outreach protocol for the beat.

Sifted treats healthtech as a capital and policy story: who raised, at what valuation, and what European regulation does to the model. Digital health, medtech, diagnostics, femtech, and mental health platforms all sit in scope when a startup is the protagonist.

The through-line is European fragmentation — 27 reimbursement systems, MDR bottlenecks, the EHDS, and AI Act compliance. A pitch wins when it explains how a company navigates that maze better than its neighbours.

What sits outside: US-only stories, patient-awareness campaigns, hospital press releases, and anything that reads as corporate comms. Sifted Healthtech journalists are startup-economy reporters first.

The beat is lean — often one to three active bylines at a time, with Daphne Leprince-Ringuet as the representative name in most directories. That concentration is an advantage: fewer inboxes, higher signal per pitch.

Build your own Sifted Healthtech reporters list by scraping the last 90 days of bylines on sifted.eu under the health and healthtech tags. Note who writes funding rounds versus who writes deep-dive analysis — the two need different pitches.

Track cadence, not just names. A reporter publishing twice weekly on digital health is a live target; one whose last healthtech byline is eight months old has likely moved beats.

Lead with the market logic, not the mission statement. "We raised €12M" is a fact; "we raised €12M because German reimbursement finally opened to digital therapeutics" is a story.

The highest-converting formats are cross-border comparisons, exclusive funding data, and regulatory friction narratives. Reporters also respond to contrarian theses that challenge the "European healthtech is booming" consensus with numbers.

Founders who can talk candidly about what isn't working — slow NHS procurement, MDR cost overruns — give a reporter a real article. Guarded optimism gives them nothing.

Email is the channel; there is no meaningful pitching via social DMs. Keep the first message under 120 words: the news, the European angle, the data point, and the founder's availability.

Subject lines should read like a headline the reporter could publish. "Exclusive: Berlin femtech cuts reimbursement time from 18 months to 4" outperforms "Story idea — healthtech."

Sourcing Sifted Healthtech journalists contacts works best through byline pages, the Sifted team page, and verified press databases — then cross-checked against recent activity. Never blast a shared press list; Sifted's newsroom talks internally, and a scattershot pitch brands you as low-signal.

Respect embargoes absolutely. Sifted breaks them rarely, but a single breach ends the relationship for the whole beat.

• Is there a European angle? If it's US-first, don't send it.
• Is there a number a VC would screenshot? If not, find one.
• Is it exclusive or embargoed? Non-exclusive round news goes to the wire, not the inbox.
• Can the founder speak this week? Access is the currency.
• Have you named a specific reporter? Generic greetings get deleted.
• Does the subject line read like a Sifted headline? Rewrite until it does.
• Is the newsroom contact current? Re-check your Sifted Healthtech reporters list before every send.

Pitch the business of European healthtech, not the technology. That single reframe moves reply rates more than any subject-line trick.