WoW Woman in Health Tech - Grace Gimson, founder and CEO of Holly Health
Grace Gimson is founder and CEO of Holly Health, a fully digital, yet compassionate, health coaching service which helps people to feel physically and mentally better, having supported over 70,000 NHS patients so far.
Grace's career spans operations, product & leadership, including roles at Microsoft, Deliveroo, and Scape (acquired by Facebook). From growing up in a family of engineers, Grace knew the power of technology and set her sights on combining her passions of psychology and accessible technology to create something impactful for the population.
In 2020, Grace partnered with a team of psychology and product experts to bring science-based personalised health coaching to the public, through Holly Health. She has since been enrolled as an NHS Innovation Accelerator Fellow and has formed partnerships at the NHS ICS (integrated care system) scale.
Holly Health is a personalised digital health and wellbeing coach, grounded in clinical and psychological evidence. The company's mission is to enable lifelong behavioral changes for millions of people, spanning mental and physical health.
The platform provides a compassionate, structured approach, utilising AI to offer daily coaching for sustainable habit development in areas like sleep, nutrition, movement, and mental wellbeing. Holly Health partners with healthcare providers, including the NHS, to make evidence-based, preventive care accessible, empowering individuals to take control of their long-term health and reduce pressure on services.
Tell us a bit about your background and your projects so far.
My background is rooted in the intersection of technology and human behavior. Growing up in a family of engineers, I developed an early appreciation for technical logic, but my passion has always been psychology and how we can use technology to address psychological challenges.
After building my career in operations and product leadership at Microsoft, Deliveroo, and Scape (later acquired by Facebook), I saw a massive opportunity to create something more meaningful for population health. I wanted to bridge the gap between "high tech" and "high empathy."
In 2020, I co-founded Holly Health. We’ve built a digital health coaching service that feels personal and supportive, rather than just another clinical tool or fitness tracker. We’ve supported over 70,000 NHS patients to date and are recognised as an NHS Innovation Accelerator Fellow.
How did you get into this industry? Has it been an easy industry to get into or have you had many challenges?
I’ve always been interested in psychology and human behaviour, and how this links closely to long-term health outcomes. With my grounding in tech and operations but with a desire to be helpful and have an impact, I naturally gravitated towards health technology.
With healthcare one of the last major industries to benefit from modern technologies at all delivery layers, I feel I joined it at an exciting time, with plenty of problems still to solve.
How long did it take you to be where you are now? What was the biggest obstacle?
Within Holly Health, it’s taken over five years of dedicated work, from initial concept and clinical research to securing pilots, then full commercialisation, to get Holly Health to where it is today. The biggest obstacle, working in prevention and digital health delivery, is getting creative to identify funding mechanisms and spending a lot of energy ‘lobbying’ for new ways or working and models of evaluating, funding, and delivering digital health services. This is an ongoing process that is interesting but challenging to navigate.
What are your biggest achievements to date?
My biggest achievement is seeing Holly Health positively impact thousands of people by helping them form habits like better sleep and managing stress. I’m particularly proud of our 200+ partnerships with the NHS, which validate our clinical approach and make our coaching accessible to those who need it most. It proves that preventative digital health can be a meaningful part of the healthcare ecosystem.
What are the projects you are currently working on?
We are currently focused on deepening our personalisation engine using advanced AI to make our coaching even more tailored to an individual's unique psychological barriers and life context. We are also working on expanding our integration capabilities within healthcare pathways (including now offering both standalone apps and a white label service) to ensure Holly Health is seamlessly available to B2B partners and users that can benefit from preventative support.
Is the #WomenInTech movement important to you and if yes, why?
Yes - diverse teams build better products that better serve diverse populations. In health, this is critical. I want to see more women in leadership roles, particularly in areas like AI and clinical technology, shaping the future of care. It’s essential to provide visibility and mentorship to inspire the next generation of female founders and engineers.
What will be the key trends in your industry in the next five years and where do you see them heading?
Hyper-personalisation through AI: Moving beyond general advice to real-time, context-aware coaching that feels truly human.
Seamless Integration into Clinical Pathways: Digital health will move from being standalone apps to being prescribed or integrated tools within standard clinical practice.
Preventative and Predictive Care: Shifting focus from treatment to early intervention, using continuous data to predict and prevent health issues before they become chronic. The future is about proactive health ownership through better data, advice, coaching, and proactivity.
What is the most important piece of advice you could give to anyone who wants to start a career in this industry?
Focus on a problem that will get you out of bed each day for 10+ years. Building in healthcare is a gradual process and personal drive needs to be sustainable through challenges. Build for the satisfaction of solving a problem for real people as opposed.
Who are three inspirational women in your respective industry you admire?
Prof. Bola Owolabi CBE is the Chief Inspector of Primary Care and Community Services at the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and the former Director of the National Healthcare Inequalities Improvement Programme at NHS England. She developed the Core20PLUS5 framework, which is now the gold standard for how the UK healthcare system identifies and treats the 20% of the population most affected by inequalities. She is a fierce advocate for "proactive population health management"—using advanced data analytics to predict which communities are at risk of poor health outcomes and intervening before they reach a crisis point.
Dr. O'Neill is a leading expert in reproductive science and the CEO and Founder of Hertility Health. A lecturer in Reproductive and Molecular Genetics at University College London (UCL), she transitioned from pure academic research to health tech entrepreneurship to solve a systemic failure: the "diagnostic odyssey" women face when seeking answers about their reproductive health.
Dr. Birkhoelzer is a Consultant Cardiologist and Clinical Research Fellow at the University of Oxford, working at the forefront of AI-enhanced cardiovascular medicine. While her clinical research focuses on using advanced MRI and metabolic modulation to treat heart failure, she has become a leading voice in health communication through her digital media work.
She is the creator and host of "Beatwise The Podcast", a patient-facing series designed to bridge the gap between complex medical research and the people it affects. By interviewing world-leading experts and translating high-level cardiology data into accessible advice, she empowers patients to take a proactive role in their heart health. Additionally, as a representative for Women in Cardiology on the British Journal of Cardiology editorial board, she frequently uses podcasting—including collaborations with the BJC Podcast—to advocate for workforce diversity and tackle gender inequality within the medical profession.
Find out more about Holly Health on their website.
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