Novel Medtech: Adiposs and Nanoglue Both Win CHF 40,000 for Cachexia-Detection and Skin-Grafting Startups

Discover more about the teams' progress, plans and fundraising goals.

Adiposs: detecting cachexia earlier

Cancer cachexia is a serious body-wasting syndrome characterized by involuntary body weight loss. It affects more than half of cancer patients, and is the cause of death in a fifth of cancer patients. Adiposs is developing a contrast agent to detect cachexia earlier, with a simple, fast, inexpensive and pain-free computed tomography scan. The innovation for reliable, early detection by University of Geneva lecturer Andrej Babic and Justyna Plewka, may help the nine million new cancer patients at highest risk of cachexia.

 

Using Venture Kick's initial 10,000-franc grant to support travel to more than 60 meetings with key opinion leaders and stakeholders in Europe and Asia has allowed Geneva-based Adiposs to verify the clinical need for its product and identify future markets. The two co-founders seek to raise 1 million francs from life science investors by the second quarter of next year, then engage their medical network to start clinical trials by the end of 2020. "Venture Kick's experience of more than 600 startups means the Kicker's Camp is just great, the coaches see where you lack and what you need," said Babic. "Being in training with other startups makes you think and understand more about your own business too. We really appreciate the network and outreach."

venturekick.ch/Adiposs

 

Nanoglue: making skin grafts stick

The $19 billion wound care market is growing as societies age and diabetes becomes more prevalent. Millions of skin graft operations are performed every year, yet ten percent of them fail. Skin-graft-rejection exposes injured patients to further discomfort, the risk of infection, and longer hospital stays. St. Gallen-based Nanoglue's co-founders Sebastian Loy and Tino Matter are using nanotechnology developed at ETH Zurich to make a simple paste that will help skin grafts stick, boosts the body's healing, and reduce the risk of infectious bacteria in the wound.

 

The team have begun expanding their network among international VCs, with a goal to fundraise towards the end of 2020, and added an experienced advisor to support their regulatory strategy. Their next steps are to start long-term toxicity tests and present their startup at international medtech conferences. "The Kickers Camp was really helpful, focusing 100 percent on the pitch. It gave us very personalized feedback -- what to work on and inputs on how to work with our advisors. It was very relevant for us," said Loy.

venturekick.ch/nanoglue