Congratulations to the winners of the 2019/20 DayOne Accelerator, supported by Fondation Botnar! Having kicked off the program this week with the Boot Camp. We greet the companies with a warm welcome.
A total of 120 startups applied to the competition, and 14 were shortlisted. These companies worked in part with UKBB to develop their business ideas, before six were chosen by a panel of experts from the region to progress to the accelerator. Here is a bit more about the four companies that will receive a place on the program and financial support:
Zoundream, a Basel company whose goal is to help identify the messages and potential pathologies in babies’ crying. A new-born cry sound embodies a great amount of information about baby’s needs, physical emotion, and potential pathological status. In Zoundream, we use artificial intelligence and sound recognition to translate new-born’s cries sounds, into baby’s actual needs and status. Their mission is to help parents and babies, all around the world, from the very beginning.
Haako, also Basel-headquartered, which is helping parents of children with asthma to better manage their condition.
Rekonas (previously e Tomo), a spinoff from the University of Basel, is working on improved bedside monitoring of epilepsy. Listening in on the communication between brain regions with sub-millisecond resolution is the key to identifying damaged brain networks or misfiring regions. This allows for higher precision in seizure localization as well as in diagnosing and monitoring the progression of multiple sclerosis – for the benefit in clinical trials and of patients.
Finally, Wello Health is a Romanian company that helps families with overweight children to improve nutrition. Based on the daily activity and food tracking, and integration with smart devices if available, Wello advises parents with a personalized meal plan generated automatically, based on the work of our nutrition experts. They offer a digital platform with certified information and based on user location, where they can recommend restaurants, diets, products. For the kids they’ve created fun and entertaining games and challenges that allow interaction with family members and friends.
Two companies that will benefit from the program coaching, contacts, and space are:
Basel company Nutrix, which is developing a nanosensor for glucose monitoring in saliva to prevent diabetes. Nutrix is high tech nanosensor placed on the tooth, detects glucose level in the saliva and transfers the information to the app. Nutrix makes continuous glucose monitoring in invisible way. Targets 425 million diabetes patients globally, number expected to increase to 629 million by 2045.
Virtual Doctors – a telemedicine company that supports healthcare professionals who provide care in Zambia. At the intersection of technology and medicine, the Virtual Doctors tele-medicine application provides a device loaded with our specially designed app to healthcare professionals working in remote rural areas. Medical professionals, utilizing our technology, are able to get a second opinion on non-emergency cases by submitting pertinent clinical data through our secure application. A volunteer doctor in either the UK or Zambia reviews the case and within 24 hours offers diagnostic and treatment advice. They want to provide healthcare facilities with an easy to use mentorship/referral tool.
We look forward to working with each of these companies, helping them to grow as well as learning from them and further enriching the ecosystem.
A special thank you to our coaches especially, Aurelie Moser, from Bambooster, who is the Lead Coach and who has been working tirelessly to conceptualise and deliver the bootcamp. Discover more about Bambooster.
Our other dedicated coaches include: Gieri Cathomas, Hans Peter Frank, Adrian Spenger, and Egle Thomas.