EIT Health Wild Card 2019 finalists are now in Business Model Validation mentoring phase

Six teams are developing solutions in Brain and Mental Health or Digital Biomarkers

Following their choice in the Wild Card Hackathon in April, the six finalist teams have taken on the next phase of the programme: A 10-week Business Model Validation process to assess the viability of their ideas from a business perspective.

This part of the Wild Card programme kicked off at the Brain and Spine Institute in Paris on 6-7 May 2019. This stage of the EIT Health Wild Card venture-building innovation programme is designed to support the teams in bringing their idea up from the conceptual stage, towards becoming a viable product.

Over the next ten weeks, the Wild Card teams receive mentoring from world-class experts at CIMIT.

Participants work through an intense curriculum covering each core step that makes up the entrepreneurial journey and are being coached through feedback along the way.

Teams also spend this stage of the process honing in on the identified unmet healthcare need in one of two challenges set by EIT Health – Brain and Mental Health or Digital Biomarkers – and work with their CIMIT mentor to progress their proposed solution and demonstrate how their idea will impact patients.

Following the 10-week mentoring process, the teams will compete in a final pitch contest in July. The two teams winning that pitch contest will be given a share of a total of €4 million in funding and receive further support in bringing their innovative products or solutions to market.

‘Thrilled to be a part of the programme’

Commenting on the second year of their collaboration with the Wild Card Programme, John Collins, Chief Operating Officer of CIMIT said: “Wild Card is a venture-building programme aimed at calling on Europe’s innovators and game-changers to solve the biggest healthcare challenges of our time. Having seen how well the two winning teams from last year are now doing, I am excited to see what this year’s final teams are capable of achieving.

“This is something CIMIT is passionate about. We are thrilled to be a part of the programme for the second year and be able to add our depth of experience to the Wild Card process to help teams make positive step-change improvements in health outcomes”.

The finalists

The six final teams competing for Wild Card support are split into two areas: Digital Biomarkers and Mental and Brain Health.

In Digital Biomarkers – Improving early diagnostics with the application of digital biomarkers – the teams are:

• BioDTek: Enrique Hernandez, Eduard Guerrero, Erika Plata, Francisco Jesus Aloa and Edilberto Ojeda.
• Dinosis: Miguel Amador, Jane Bourgninaud and Andreu Oliver.
• Phi: Mahmoud Tavakoli and Pedro Lopes.

In Brain and Mental Health – Improving prediction, diagnosis and treatment to fight mental disorders and strengthen brain health– the teams are:

• iLoF: Luis Valente, Joana Paiva, Mehak Mumtaz and Paula Sampaio.
• Panthera: Alfonso Maria Ponsiglione, Clemens Lowik, Kranthi Panth and Dr. Enza Torino.
• Pipra: John Klepper, Nick Gklezakos, Nayeli Schmutz and Benjamin Dodsworth.