EIT Health Belgium-Netherlands awards 9 start-ups Headstart support and €50 000

The start-ups were selected from a pool of 36 high-quality applicants

In the first Headstart call of 2019, EIT Health Belgium-Netherlands awarded nine start-ups with support that includes €50 000 in funding. The goal of the support is to accelerate start-ups and SMEs towards market launch and commercialisation.

The nine start-ups represent solutions in medtech, digital health and diagnostics. They span areas such as malaria diagnostics, gastric monitoring, cable-free surgical equipment, medical technologies for visually impaired, software for lung function testing, machine intelligence systems, rehabilitation and healthy aging. They were selected from a pool of 36 high-quality applicants.

The Headstart programme is designed to help start-ups and SMEs develop their healthcare innovations faster and better. EIT Health Headstart support provides early-stage healthcare companies and SME’s with non-dilutive funding to:

• support the next steps towards the market and shorten time-to-market for innovative products and services;
• verify the need of the product or service, and the benefit of the product or service for users, customers, health care providers and also for the EIT Health Partners;
• increase the possibility of attracting further private investment.

The nine start-ups receiving funding are:

1. Aidx Medical (TU Delft – Delft, The Netherlands): Aidx Medical is dealing with malaria on several levels and in different markets; it markets a new affordable malaria detection procedure, able to increase efficiency of (European) malaria research centers, to reduce malaria morbidity, mortality and transmission in endemic areas and to tackle one of the major causes of rising drug resistance.
2. ArtiQ (a spin-off company of KU Leuven – Leuven, Belgium): ArtiQ developed AI-based software to help doctors save their time and improve accuracy when interpreting lung function.
3. Envision Technologies (participated in EIT Health Validation Lab in September 2018 – Delft, The Netherlands): A smart wearable camera that can speak out visual information to blind and low-vision users, thereby helping them be independent and productive members of society.
4. Freesense solutions (Eindhoven University of Technology – Eindhoven, The Netherlands): The eCareBuddy is a breakthrough elderly e-care system consisting of a client-worn hearable and an e-care data intervention platform. The tiny hearable is able to measure vital signs (activeness, body temperature, cardiologic signs, hearing enhancement) and establishes direct and remote data and voice communication without the need of a smartphone.
5. Meds2Go (winner of the Yes!Delft LaunchLab programme in December2016 – Leiden, The Netherlands): Meds²Go developed innovative cooling containers for people who use temperature-sensitive medication. Their focus is on the group of medicines that must be kept between 2 and 8°C. (In Europe that includes 3.8 million people, often with a chronic disease.) By extending the travel time (minimum 24 hours), the container gives back freedom and security to these people.
6. MindAffect (a spin-off company of Radboud University, in collaboration with IMEC – Nijmegen, The Netherlands): A Brain Computer Interface (BCI) consisting of a consumer-grade EEG-headset and an iPad application that allows fully paralyzed (locked-in) people to communicate again, or enables doctors to receive information from patients (temporarily) not able to use their voice or hands to communicate.
7. Sensinxs (Brugge, Belgium): The Smart Healthcare Platform helps healthcare professionals to localise equipment, patients and staff – in realtime. Their SaaS platform also includes advanced new tools for the better monitoring of patient vital signs. The results? Significant savings, improved efficiency and higher patient satisfaction.
8. Surge-on Medical (a spin-off company of TU Delft – Delft, The Netherlands): Surge-on Medical is improving minimally invasive surgeries by developing innovative instruments to empower surgeons. Their first product, the Steerable Punch, is an arthroscopic cutter for knee surgery that improves the reachability in difficult to access areas. Its new version will increase the chances for a faster market acceptance.
9. VIPUN Medical (a spin-off company of KU Leuven – Leuven, Belgium): The VIPUN Gastric Monitoring System (GMS) provides, for the first time, in an easy and affordable manner, insight into the stomach function of a patient and can either be used as a continuous monitoring tool (e.g. in ICU patients with feeding intolerance) or for stomach motility diagnostics (e.g. in Diabetic Gastroparesis patients).