Smart Pregnancies and Smart Sports: Startups Making Intelligent Pads to Reassure Pregnant Women, and Digital Equipment-Lockers Win CHF 40,000
29.08.2019
REA's sensors could reassure pregnant women concerned about preterm birth, while BoxUp's smart lockers are already being used in Swiss cities. The founders will use Venture Kick's support and coaching to refine their businesses over the next six months.
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 BoxUp co-founders Frank Rouiller Lucien Manueddu and Florian Voumard
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 REA co-founders Erick Antonio Garcia Cordero and Loulia Kassem
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BoxUp: smart lockers for sports equipment
HES-SO Valais-Wallis alums Frank Rouillier, Florian Voumard and Lucien Manueddu developed BoxUp during their masters in product development, using the design thinking method. It’s a smart locker and app that lets users rent sports and leisure equipment directly at green, outdoor spaces. The leisure, sport or relaxation equipment varies depending on the location of the boxes. Boxup helps people have fun and exercise at sports and leisure facilities, without having to buy, store and transport equipment – so there’re able to discover new activities and places to practise them easily.
"The Kickers' Camp was amazing: so many sharp, experienced people in the room -- we've never had so much, focused feedback," said Rouillier. "The trainers are really able to put the finger on the problem and identify what you need to work on," echoed Manueddu.
After joining Venture Kick BoxUp was admissible to win a 150,000-franc First Ventures grant from Gebert Rüf Stiftung. The team is working with engineers from HEIG-VD, the School of Management and Engineering Vaud, and preparing for industrialization.
REA: intelligent pads to monitor women's risks of preterm birth
Ten percent of all pregnant women give birth prematurely and there aren't any self-tests for preterm birth (PTB) on the market, so worried patients face invasive and time-consuming tests each time they suspect something is amiss. PTB's symptoms are common, so most pregnant women visit the hospital at least once for these risky and expensive checks.
Co-founders and CEO Loulia Kassem, a pharmaceutical biotechnologist, and inventor and CTO Erick Garcia-Cordero are building on his microfluidic research to develop an intelligent pad. Their tech will allow patients and doctors to monitor the risk of PTB remotely more easily. REA's founders are collaborating with Lausanne University Hospital's pre-natal unit to perfect a diagnostic tool to reassure 500,000 women in Europe annually.
"Venture Kick has been an amazing ride, it has helped us define our business model and the most-critical points of our business case," said CEO Kassem. The EPFL-spinoff will next gathering clinical data with our partners in Switzerland and Germany, and prepare for regulatory certification.
REA's profile
REA's profile