#vleadersLifeScience 2017: Meet Francesco Petrini from SensArs
17.05.2017
Leaving to Boston on June 11 until June 17, this year’s venture leaders Life Science forming the ‘Swiss National Startup Team Life Science 2017’ reflect the impressive quality of Swiss startups, whose innovations come from the best universities and research institutes of Switzerland. Learn more about their growth objectives before the trip in our short interview series, running from May 9 to May 23 on venturelab.ch, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
 Francesco Petrini (left) and co-founder Stanisa Raspopovic from SensArs Neuroprosthetics
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You can see the whole campaign on twitter.com/venturelab_ch searching the hashtag #vleadersLifeScience.
Lower limb amputees suffer from a lack of sensory feedback from prostheses. Because of this, they experience falls due to unexpected perturbations, and walk asymmetrically facing high fatigue. Also, they feel the prosthesis as a foreign body and contract phantom limb pain. Due to such inconveniences, 60% of the amputees abandon their prosthesis. SensArs’ solution is SENSY, a unique worldwide product which allows amputees to naturally feel their missing limbs.
Why do you choose Boston as your business development destination?
SensArs is a pure medtech company. Boston, being targeted from venturelab as the destination for Life Science business trip, fits perfectly with our interests.
What do you want to achieve from the trip?
We have 4 main objectives to pursue:
*Meeting experts in business and management with experience in neuro-stimulation devices
*Meeting clinicians in the USA that are interested in testing SENSY
*Meeting manufacturers, interested in a partnership and/or a collaboration for the production of SENSY
*Meeting investors, interested in our business case.
Why is venture leaders Life Science really beneficial for your company?
We need to network with clinicians in the US because our market is located there, and clinicians are our customers. Meeting more manufacturers than those we already know increases the chances of a partnership that would simplify the production of SENSY in the future. The neuro-modulating devices market, indeed, is more extended in the US than in Europe. In addition, during 2017 we need to raise 1.5 million for the development of an industrial prototype of SENSY. The US is the right place in the world to find investors willing to invest in medtech startups.