Four start-ups from Bayer accelerator present projects to investors and experts
<p>The presentation session, which also featured guest start-ups, brings the first edition of Grants4Apps Coworking Barcelona to a close</p>
More than 130 people with ties to the digital health sector met at Bayer’s facilities in Sant Joan Despí on 14 March for Demo Day, the closing event of the first edition of Grants4Apps Coworking Barcelona. The event features the four start-ups selected for the program, presenting their projects to investors and experts in digital health and biotechnology.
Over the six-month program (the companies moved into the offices last October), the four teams of entrepreneurs had personalized mentoring and coaching sessions covering legal, financial, business and marketing issues, in addition to use of a co-working space provided by Bayer. At Demo Day, which followed a round of one-to-one meetings between the start-ups and various investors, the entrepreneurs presented their projects to the audience, discussing their evolution and how advanced they are.
The four companies selected include Dycare, which has developed a sensor to control and analyze the skeletal muscle system, and Hearttrack, which has created a cardiovascular monitoring system to prevent heart disease that is connected via sensors to a mobile app.
Mint Labs, which has the most advanced project of the four, uses magnetic resonance technology to create 3D maps of the brain for early diagnosis of brain disease. And, finally, QUBIOtech is working on software to improve imaging diagnostics for neurological diseases.
The event also featured four guest start-ups, all working in the digital health arena: Exovite, which manufactures customized 3D-printed splints; Apptimiza, an app that helps perform CPR on patients; Psious, a company that focuses on virtual reality for mental health and oncology (recently raised €1 million) and ZeClinics, a biotechnology firm that uses zebra fish instead of mice as model animals to study new chemical molecules (even though they aren’t working on a digital solution applied to the health arena, they were invited by the program’s mentors).
The final presentation was about BloodPlus, a project by 15-year-old students at Col·legi Montserrat de Barcelona who have invented an app to promote blood donations in exchange for movie tickets or discounts at shops.
Another participant at Demo Day, Eugene Borukhovich of SVP Healthcare, spoke about artificial intelligence and robotics and their impact on health, taking into account all of the possibilities they offer for healthy ageing, the great social and economic challenge of the 21st century.
Demo Day brought the Grants4Apps Coworking program to a close. This was the first time Bayer has offered this program in Barcelona (previously only in Germany), which aims to support innovative start-ups in digital health.
Related news:
Bayer welcomes four healthcare technology start-up to its facilities under the ‘Grants4Apps’ Barcelona program (28.10.2015)
- Bayer brings Grants4Apps initiative for innovative digital-health start-ups to Barcelona (30.09.2015)