Startups developing an AI-driven blister roll to deliver precise medication, improving the sensory acceptance of plant-based dairy, offering devices to help visually impaired people, and textile-integrated tissue oxygenation sensors each win CHF 10,000
19.11.2021
adhereUp, Cultivated Biosciences, Hikane, and SensaWear win Venture Kick's first stage of financial and entrepreneurial support. Their projects offer an integrated service of data analytics that enables to very precisely capture when patients take their tabs; develop a fat ingredient from GMO-free yeast which offers the creaminess needed for plant-based dairy to appeal to flexitarian consumers, allow blind and visually impaired people to avoid obstacles and improve their security, and sensors giving the patient feedback about their tissue oxygenation saturation so that they can act to prevent pressure injuries before they happen.
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 adhereUp's Founder Alexandre Maeusli
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 Cultivated Biosciences Founders: Co-founder & CTO Dimitri Zogg, and CEO & Co-Founder Tomas Turner
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 Hikane's Founders: From left to right: Tristan Tarasi (Business development), Valentin Karam (Lead electrical engineer), and Raphaël Ausilio (Lead 3D designer)
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 SensaWear: CEO Oliver Kress, CTO Tarcisi Cantieni, and interim-CMO Prof. Dr. Ursula Wolf
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adhereUp: Improving patient compliance to a new tab drug treatment
Patient non-adherence to drug treatment is a well-known problem costing €1.25 Bio in Europe. It is also true for new drug development. It would be ideal if all patients adhered to the investigational medical product (IMP) and the study protocol. Many patients do not, approximately 40% to 70% of patients become nonadherent to IMP after 150 days. IMP non-adherence not only causes temporary bouts of toxicity (double dosing) and lack of efficacy (skipping doses) but also introduces data variability into the equation. Each % of lost adherence represents an average of 2.7%of the total trial budget.
To tackle this issue, a former student in HEIG-VD and software embedded engineer Alexandre Maeusli founded adhereUp. For a recurrent subscription fee, adhereUp offers an integrated service of data analytics that enables to very precisely capture when patients take their tabs. The first focus is on selling their service to pharma companies or Clinical Research Organisations (CROs) and help them better monitor patient adherence when they develop new drugs, focusing on tab drugs. The cost of new drug development can amount to MCHF 100. adhereUp estimate pharma companies can pay a few dollars per month to improve patient compliance to a new tab drug treatment, to better measure drug efficacy, to avoid trial delay because of loss of follow-up and new patient recruitment. Its main target market is the clinical trials market for new drug tabs development. They focus on phase III and IV trials, valued at USD 19.5 B in the EU and 16.1 B in the US, with a cagr of 10%. External services account for 40% in these markets. They estimate data acquisition solution can represent 2%. 5 years after product launch, the team targets a market penetration of 10%, reaching annual revenue of USD 25 M in the EU and USD 20 M in the US.
The Venture Kick funds will be used for patent research & patent filing, determining device medical class, set up a simple remote Data storage for partner tests. This intends to start harvesting data for future developments. adhereup.ch
Cultivated Biosciences: Improving the sensory acceptance of plant-based dairy
Plant-based dairy alternatives fail to provide the same sensory journey as traditional dairy products, resulting in being completely stripped of identity value. Improving the sensory acceptance of plant-based dairy, particularly textural attributes associated with fat content and nature, can be the key to saving traditional European dairy.
Cultivated is developing a fat ingredient from GMO-free yeast, which offers the creaminess needed for plant-based dairy to appeal to flexitarian consumers. They have successfully produced the first prototypes of this ingredient and will soon start working on different applications, such as ice cream and cheese. Their ingredient is resistant to lipid oxidation, which extends shelf life, and can be produced from industrial by-products. Cultivated Biosciences will work on these applications with several partners, such as Migros Industrie. These partners will also be their potential customers and they have 7 letters of intent from companies wanting to use our product in their ingredients. They have received several awards for our innovative solution, and the co-founder Tomas recently obtained a Bridge PoC grant from Innosuisse and SNF.
The 10k CHF from Venture Kick will be used to produce samples for interested consumers. This will be both from raw materials (production of yeast by a separate swiss company) as well as equipment rental for downstream processing.
SensaWear: wearable, textile-integrated tissue oxygenation and pressure sensors using the principle of near-infrared spectroscopy
There currently exist no continuous monitoring methods for the prevention of pressure injuries. Nurses and caretakers have to inspect patients for signs of early stages of pressure injury formation. This can be difficult because most people who form them cannot move, and the injury starts below the skin. By the time the skin shows signs of the injury, the damage is often done and the path to recovery is long, painful, difficult, and expensive.
Prof. Dr. Ursula Wolf from the University of Bern (IKIM) is SensaWear interim-CMO, co-founder, chairwoman of the board and medical advisor with experience in near-infrared technology, and Dr. Oliver Kress is the CEO and co-founder with a background in physics and a strong desire to commercialize revolutionary technology in the med-tech field. CTO and co-founder Tarcisi Cantieni, M.Sc. (Ph.D. candidate) will direct SensaWear's R&D. SensaWear develops wearable, textile-integrated tissue oxygenation and pressure sensors using the principle of near-infrared spectroscopy. Special fiber optics seamlessly integrated into clothing will give users real-time feedback of their tissue oxygen saturation and pressure against the skin. This will allow the user to be aware of low-oxygenation conditions induced by high-pressure points, indicating they should move or be moved. This technology will prevent painful and dangerous pressure injuries/pressure ulcers from forming. SensaWear is working with industrial partners to produce specialized electronics and textiles and will develop and market the sensors to hospitals and clinics, saving the industry billions of dollars each year.
They plan to use the money to travel to hospitals throughout Switzerland, Europe and the US for market validation and to financially support a CE mark certification and registration of the medical device; a key milestone needed for timely commercialization. Venture Kick funds will also be used to grow their team and to help turn their prototypes into commercial products.
Patient non-adherence to drug treatment is a well-known problem costing €1.25 Bio in Europe. It is also true for new drug development. It would be ideal if all patients adhered to the investigational medical product (IMP) and the study protocol. Many patients do not, approximately 40% to 70% of patients become nonadherent to IMP after 150 days. IMP non-adherence not only causes temporary bouts of toxicity (double dosing) and lack of efficacy (skipping doses) but also introduces data variability into the equation. Each % of lost adherence represents an average of 2.7%of the total trial budget.
To tackle this issue, a former student in HEIG-VD and software embedded engineer Alexandre Maeusli founded adhereUp. For a recurrent subscription fee, adhereUp offers an integrated service of data analytics that enables to very precisely capture when patients take their tabs. The first focus is on selling their service to pharma companies or Clinical Research Organisations (CROs) and help them better monitor patient adherence when they develop new drugs, focusing on tab drugs. The cost of new drug development can amount to MCHF 100. adhereUp estimate pharma companies can pay a few dollars per month to improve patient compliance to a new tab drug treatment, to better measure drug efficacy, to avoid trial delay because of loss of follow-up and new patient recruitment. Its main target market is the clinical trials market for new drug tabs development. They focus on phase III and IV trials, valued at USD 19.5 B in the EU and 16.1 B in the US, with a cagr of 10%. External services account for 40% in these markets. They estimate data acquisition solution can represent 2%. 5 years after product launch, the team targets a market penetration of 10%, reaching annual revenue of USD 25 M in the EU and USD 20 M in the US.
The Venture Kick funds will be used for patent research & patent filing, determining device medical class, set up a simple remote Data storage for partner tests. This intends to start harvesting data for future developments. adhereup.ch
Cultivated Biosciences: Improving the sensory acceptance of plant-based dairy
Plant-based dairy alternatives fail to provide the same sensory journey as traditional dairy products, resulting in being completely stripped of identity value. Improving the sensory acceptance of plant-based dairy, particularly textural attributes associated with fat content and nature, can be the key to saving traditional European dairy.
Cultivated is developing a fat ingredient from GMO-free yeast, which offers the creaminess needed for plant-based dairy to appeal to flexitarian consumers. They have successfully produced the first prototypes of this ingredient and will soon start working on different applications, such as ice cream and cheese. Their ingredient is resistant to lipid oxidation, which extends shelf life, and can be produced from industrial by-products. Cultivated Biosciences will work on these applications with several partners, such as Migros Industrie. These partners will also be their potential customers and they have 7 letters of intent from companies wanting to use our product in their ingredients. They have received several awards for our innovative solution, and the co-founder Tomas recently obtained a Bridge PoC grant from Innosuisse and SNF.
The 10k CHF from Venture Kick will be used to produce samples for interested consumers. This will be both from raw materials (production of yeast by a separate swiss company) as well as equipment rental for downstream processing.
Hikane: Assistive devices for blind and visually impaired people
Blind and visually impaired people often use the white cane, a simple and useful tool that help them in their daily life. Unfortunately, the white cane cannot detect some obstacles that aren’t on the ground. This can lead to severe injuries and an overall feeling of insecurity.
Founders Raphaël Ausilio (3D designer), Valentin Karam (Electrical engineer), Victor Tiberghien (Programming), Tristan Tarasi (Business) want to bring on the market a device, that will allow them to avoid those obstacles and improve their security. Their product is a housing containing sensors that can detect the distance of an object. The housing is fixed to a white cane and can be adapted to any cane size. The user holds his cane as he usually does and leaves his finger on top of the housing. When the sensors detect an object, it sends an electrical signal to a small motor which will transmit the vibration through the user's finger. The user then knows that there is an object or an obstacle in front of him and is able to avoid it.
Founders Raphaël Ausilio (3D designer), Valentin Karam (Electrical engineer), Victor Tiberghien (Programming), Tristan Tarasi (Business) want to bring on the market a device, that will allow them to avoid those obstacles and improve their security. Their product is a housing containing sensors that can detect the distance of an object. The housing is fixed to a white cane and can be adapted to any cane size. The user holds his cane as he usually does and leaves his finger on top of the housing. When the sensors detect an object, it sends an electrical signal to a small motor which will transmit the vibration through the user's finger. The user then knows that there is an object or an obstacle in front of him and is able to avoid it.
The first Venture Kick funds will be used mainly for R&D development and continuing the process of the IP protection.
There currently exist no continuous monitoring methods for the prevention of pressure injuries. Nurses and caretakers have to inspect patients for signs of early stages of pressure injury formation. This can be difficult because most people who form them cannot move, and the injury starts below the skin. By the time the skin shows signs of the injury, the damage is often done and the path to recovery is long, painful, difficult, and expensive.
Prof. Dr. Ursula Wolf from the University of Bern (IKIM) is SensaWear interim-CMO, co-founder, chairwoman of the board and medical advisor with experience in near-infrared technology, and Dr. Oliver Kress is the CEO and co-founder with a background in physics and a strong desire to commercialize revolutionary technology in the med-tech field. CTO and co-founder Tarcisi Cantieni, M.Sc. (Ph.D. candidate) will direct SensaWear's R&D. SensaWear develops wearable, textile-integrated tissue oxygenation and pressure sensors using the principle of near-infrared spectroscopy. Special fiber optics seamlessly integrated into clothing will give users real-time feedback of their tissue oxygen saturation and pressure against the skin. This will allow the user to be aware of low-oxygenation conditions induced by high-pressure points, indicating they should move or be moved. This technology will prevent painful and dangerous pressure injuries/pressure ulcers from forming. SensaWear is working with industrial partners to produce specialized electronics and textiles and will develop and market the sensors to hospitals and clinics, saving the industry billions of dollars each year.
They plan to use the money to travel to hospitals throughout Switzerland, Europe and the US for market validation and to financially support a CE mark certification and registration of the medical device; a key milestone needed for timely commercialization. Venture Kick funds will also be used to grow their team and to help turn their prototypes into commercial products.