Bayer’s Demo Day “Grants4Apps Accelerator 2015“ took place some days ago in Berlin, Germany.
It must be noted that Grants4Apps supports early stage startups working on highly innovative hardware and software solutions for healthcare. At the same time, a series of workshops around digital health themes took place, as presentations with over 40 CEOs from top German digital health startups, investors, developers, students and entrepreneurs.
Via its “Grants4Apps Accelerator 2015” program, Bayer HealthCare has selected five digital health startups from around the globe that will advance their business ideas and technology in areas such as hormone tests, patient adherence, breathing patterns, clinical trials and vitamin deficiency.
Bayer received more than 200 digital health related applications from 48 countries to participate in the “Grants4Apps Accelerator 2015” program. As of the five digital health startups that were chosen for the “Grants4Apps Accelerator 2015” program, they come from five different countries and three continents: Serona from the U.S., MediKeep from Estonia, Sendinaden founded by Bayer entrepreneurs in China, Viomedo from Germany and Vitameter from Canada.
For the first time, two of the startup companies will also use the laboratory facilities in the Berlin Bayer HealthCare Collaborator as they need further capacities to test their concepts in real life. The Bayer HealthCare Collaborator is a global research incubator concept that offers young life sciences companies access to the Bayer expertise and the global research network, in addition to the ready to use laboratory and office infrastructure in the immediate vicinity of the company’s own research facilities in San Francisco and Berlin.
The “Grants4Apps (G4A) Accelerator” is part of Bayer HealthCare’s open innovation initiatives and aims at creating an environment in which to advance digital innovation in healthcare. It was established in 2014 and offers dedicated office space for five digital health startups with concepts for innovative technology solutions to healthcare problems at the premises of Bayer HealthCare in Berlin.
The program wants to support the digital health startups in further advancing their projects and business models. Each startup receives up to 50,000 Euro as financial support and can stay in the “Grants4Apps Accelerator” premises for about 100 days. During this time, Bayer offers experienced managers as coaches to the startups, in addition to intensive mentoring by external entrepreneurs.
The five startups
Serona
Serona generates and tracks hormone data to enable precision medicine. The Serona platform offers accurate and accessible hormone testing and data management to researchers and healthcare professionals. Instead of the current status quo in women’s health of treatment planning by trial and error, Serona empowers hundreds of millions of women on hormonal prescriptions (e.g., for fertility solutions, menopause symptoms) to seek customized solutions and track insights over time.
MediKeep
MediKeep is a mobile app for the home medicine cabinet. It has an inventory option to list all medicines by scanning the bar-codes or searching from a database, viewing expiry dates and remaining quantities. MediKeep is also working as a pill-reminder, with notifications where the user can count down dosage from the inventory after every notification.
Sendinaden
Sendinaden focuses on 3D printed smart wearable devices that help city-dwellers build better habits by triggering flow states for learning and health. The company rides different trends including wearable enchanted devices, 3D printing as a new form of distributed manufacturing for customized, complex geometries and learning & health through flow states.
Viomedo
Viomedo provides patients access to innovative therapies in the setting of clinical trials. The online platform aggregates 2,000 clinical trials that are open for patients in Germany. It also provides them with the information they need in order to consider participating in a clinical trial as a therapeutic option.
Vitameter
Vitameter is a handheld device that analyzes users vitamin levels from a single drop of blood with a user experience similar to glucometers. The intent is to expand to other biomarkers, providing users with the information needed to quantitatively understand and optimize their health.