European Health Catapult Medtech Semifinal Winners selected

Eight start-ups will pitch at the EIT Health Summit

Eight start-ups were chosen to go on to the finals after the second of the three European Health Catapult (EHC) Semifinals, this leg focusing on medtechs, was held in Grenoble, France on 1-3 October 2018. Around 15 excellent start-ups participated in a two-day intensive training working on strengthening their value proposition and their pitching talents.

On the third day, the EHC start-ups delivered a pitch in front of an expert and investor jury. In total, the Medtech Catapult Semifinalists asked for approximately €66 million for future investments. In the afternoon, the start-ups had an opportunity to network and establish further connections with investors and health industry representatives.

The EHC investor jury selected eight medtech start-ups to go through to the finals of the European Health Catapult competition which will be held during the EIT Health Summit on 3-5 December 2018, in Lodz, Poland.

There they will be joined by Biotech and Digital Health start-ups and all the finalists will pitch their innovations to compete for recognition, the attention of investors and prizes worth a total of €135 000.

2018 EHC Medtech Semifinal Winners

Aenitis Technologies – EIT Health France

• Continuous, contactless and pressureless sorting of cells in suspensions – Cost effective and efficient Bioprocessing solutions are main issues in cell therapy. Aenitis develop innovative patented medical devices for continuous, contactless and pressurless sorting of cells in suspensions, using Acoustic Radiation Forces. With large added values, Aenitis answer in cell therapy units and blood banks’ challenges on cell sorting, on cell washing and on cell isolation for blood, tissues and stem cells processing. Its 1st CE marked devices should be on the market by early 2021.Supported by major companies and largely awarded in Europe, Aenitis received over €5,8M grants and €2M VC funding. In order to close a €3,2M series A funding, Aenitis is still looking for €1,2M.

HydrUStent, LDA – EIT Health Innostars

• HydrUStent – Non-degradable is so 20th Century – Every year around ten million people worldwide need a urological STENT. But did you know that almost 100% of these people develop a bacterial infection within 30 days of implantation? And also, require a second surgery for stent removal? Imagine that we have a product that avoids this. HYDRUSTENT does that! HydrUStent is a biodegradable, anti-bacterial and tailor-made stent which underlying technology has been protecting by a patent. HydrUStent not only reduces the risk of bacterial infection but it also cuts down half the number of surgical procedures reducing the treatment cost by 60%. HydrUStent is a Portuguese spin-off company from 3Bs Research Group, University of Minho a leading group in Biomaterials research. The biodegradable ureteral stent is our first product from a patented biodegradable drug-eluting medical devices pipeline.

INGA Wellbeing – EIT Health BeNe

• Comfortable, dignified clothing to empower patients and promote a faster recovery – To counter the debilitating impact of the hospital gown, INGA Wellbeing worked with nurses to create award-winning day- and nightwear that accommodates with IV lines, drains and monitors. Able to dress themselves, patients feel in control and are more likely to walk and enjoy visitors and thus improve their wellbeing and recovery. Medical staff are able to access the body quickly and easily for routine examinations and treatments, saving valuable time, and providing the kind of respectful care that ensures a good patient experience. Sales have begun online and we are working with a prominent Belgian hospital to develop an institutional version that can loaned to patients during their hospital stay. In this way, we hope to make our clothing solutions more widely available and to encourage sales of the consumer range.

Medical Magnesium GmbH – EIT Health Germany

• Medical Magnesium develops the next generation of implants – Medical Magnesium is a medtech start-up that revolutionises modern patient care by developing and marketing bioabsorbable orthopedic implants made of magnesium. The current standard of care to cure bone fractures requires a removal surgery of the permanent implant material. Patients inevitably suffer from unnecessary pain, longer healing time, high risk of infection causing increased healthcare costs. Medical Magnesium has developed a new class of bioabsorbable implants that eliminate the need for a removal surgery, as they absorb in a controlled manner after healing the fracture. Together with leading users from orthopedics and trauma surgery the team strives for a better patient care.

Plasmacure B.V. – EIT Health BeNe

• Healing chronic wounds and preventing from amputation – Around 10 million patients in Europe develop diabetic foot, venous leg and pressure ulcers. For 3% of diabetic foot patients these wounds result in an amputation. This decreases quality of life for patients. Our goal is to prevent this and heal wounds with Plasoma. Plasoma is a chronic wound healing device consisting of an electronic pad that creates a cold plasma in the wound and a pulser that sends the electric current to the pad. When applied to the wound the cold plasma kills the bacteria and stimulates healing. This quick and painless treatment decreases the risk for amputation and contributes to a patient’s quality of life.

SensArs Neuroprosthetics – EIT Health Germany

• Restoring limb functionalities to people affected by extremities amputation or nerve damages – SensArs Neuroprosthetics is an EPFL spin-off that was founded in Saint-Sulpice in 2014 by Francesco Petrini and Stanisa Raspopovic, two researchers of EPFL, and Silvestro Micera, professor of EPFL and Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna (Italy). Since its creation SensArs has raised more than 500’000 CHF in non-dilutive grants, and has filed two patent applications. Thanks to this support, SensArs has developed SENSY, unique worldwide device to restore sensory feedback to lower limb amputees from their prosthesis. SensArs has also conducted a pilot trial with three lower limb amputees, preliminarily proving that SENSY reduces the risk of falls, increases the perception of the prosthesis as part of the body, and diminishes phantom limb pain. Lower limb amputees are about four million only in USA and Europe. SensArs is now organising a series A fund raising of six million. This money is needed to develop the final version of SENSY, and to run a clinical trial with 40 patients to gather CE mark and start commercialisation.

VitaDX International – EIT Health France

• Innovative medical device for early bladder cancer diagnosis – VitaDX combines fluorescence imaging and image processing using machine learning algorithms to detect cancerous cells in a urine sample. The company was created in 2015 and our 12 people are based in Rennes and Paris. We are strongly supported since the beginning of the company by the regions Ile-de-France and Bretagne, BPI, the SATT Paris-Saclay. Our clinical trial on 1400 patients will end in early 2019 and the first solution, VisioCyt, will be commercialised in early 2020. We have fundraised €2.6 M in two turns of financing with business angels and Venture Capitalists and are looking for €3 M in early 2019.

TADA Medical – EIT Health Scandinavia

• No more patient injuries caused by dislodged medical tubes – Global statistics show that 10% of medical tubes are accidentally pulled and damaged, resulting in loss of medicine, patient injury and possibly death. TADA Medical has invented a fail-safe connector made to keep the tube, patient and personnel safe. Our connector is cheap and mass producible, perfect for protecting the 3.5 billion tubes currently at risk of being pulled. The market is estimated to €7 billion a year. We have a highly competent team of doctors and engineers, and a patented technology with the potential to set a new EU-standard for tube protection and take the global fight for patient safety to the next level.

About European Health Catapult

The EHC is a training and competition programme, jointly organised by EIT Health. It awards the best-of-the-best business concepts from MedTech, Biotech and Digital Health across Europe.

During the two-day Semifinals, 42 European high-profile health start-ups are teamed up with mentors (i.e. experienced entrepreneurs, investors, experts in the field) to optimise the companies’ business plan and provide intensive pitch training in order to improve the start-ups’ ability to perform a funding roadshow in front of top-level seed or A series Investors.

The Semifinal is closed during the third day of a public event when the start-ups will meet investors and industry representatives and seven of them will be selected to participate in the EHC Finals during the EIT Health Summit in December 2018.

• For further enquiries contact:
  Anais Delicourt, anais.delicourt@eithealth.eu