8. januar 2021

SUND Hubs New years gretings 2021

Despite covid-19: Flourishing level of activity among SUND Student Start-ups: 10 new teams entered the incubator, and more than DKK 5 million was raised in 2020.

SUND Hub counted a total of 20 active teams in 2020 and adding to the impressing funding number they have raised, we’re proud to see three recent alumni-teams raised more than DKK 18 million this year. In many ways, 2020 has been a different year than expected, but looking back, the level of entrepreneurial activity among students proves that creativity is thriving.

After launching the spring batch 2020 of the Health Innovators’ program in the beginning of the year, we were faced with covid-19 lockdown in SUND Hub like the rest of Denmark. The new online reality gave us the opportunity to move all programs online. This happened in the middle of the springs’ Health Innovators Program, a shared program with the Capital Region, DTU, CBS and KP. The program supports student’s pursuing ideas in health.

We quickly realized that the motivation of the teams remained intact and almost everyone completed the program. Among them, two teams: INA Innovation and Flutest Group obtained their first DKK 25.000 funding from the Danish Foundation For Entrepreneurship and we set the ambition of continuing all our other Student Innovation programs online: Challenge Track, SUND Hub incubator program and “Academic Internships with ECTS”.

The Incubator program aimed to take student’s ideas to the next level focusing on actions, business development  and implementation. The program was launched with an intensive online boot camp in June in close collaboration with the MedTech/Digital Health team from Accelerace, and 10 new student startups are still working to improve patients’ and public health within biotech, Pharma, cosmeceuticals, oral health, health education, MedTech and assistive technologies. With the 10 new teams SUND Hub constitutes a total of 18 team and two entrepreneurs in residence at SUND Hub counting a total of 89 students.

Startup in Practice is thriving and won the DSEB Innovation prize

Startup in Practice is a national partnership between five Danish Universities and the foundation for entrepreneurship working together to make academic projects and internships in startups possible. In 2020 the project contributed to event further collaboration between the 3 innovation hubs at the university of Copenhagen, and in November 2020 the national partnership was awarded the DSEB Innovation prize for developing a new framework for entrepreneurship in the curriculum with academic internships. At UCPH more than 122 students have now gained ECTS in startups since the project began in 2018 (a fifth of them from SUND).

SUND Hub is ready to support even more students and academic environments from the faculty of Health and medical science in future collaboration on combining the entrepreneurial journey with the academic curriculum.

Challenge Track – igniting the dream of healthcare innovation

22 students and healthcare professionals from 12 different nations participated in this year’s Challenge Track Program aimed for students curious to know more about innovation in the healthcare sector – all working to solve to challenges: Challenge #1: “Fall prevention during hospitalization“, provided by the Department of Medical Diseases at Herlev-Gentofte Hospital, The Capital Region or Challenge #2: “Correct handling of pharmaceuticals”, provided by Pro.medicin.dk.

New ideas for products and services were developed over 10 weeks while both students and challenge providers gained insight in the process of patient/consumer centered development and “Team A” consisting of Daniel Moreno Martinez, Felix Frahm and Sanchana Krishnakumar won the jury’s’ first price for best solution to Fall prevention.

SUND Hub Team updates

It has also been an existing year for the student entrepreneurs in SUND Hub. Hereby, an update from the most noteworthy accomplishments from the SUND Hub teams in 2020:

Idrætsfællesskabet

Was granted more than DKK 2,7 million. from various funds to continue their work with creating and facilitating sport communities among socially vulnerable citizen. Most notable: A 3-year project at EnergiCenter Voldparken in collaboration with Team Sport and Health at University of Copenhagen.

SYNCSENSE

Was granted a total of DKK 1.05 million. in soft funding from various funds including EIT Headstart and Danish Foundation for Entrepreneurship. They moved from “prototype” to “commercial launch” serving both hospitals and municipalities with their VR-experience for elderly long-term hospitalized patients.

Pleaz

Got very good traction on their “Active breaks for businesses” – partly due to covid-19, but also because they have launched a solid product pivoted from their LetLeg solution to primary schools. Pleaz launched their product with Nestlé Nordic followed by Bankdata, PDC, Tryg and Milestone Systems. Furthermore, they were granted both the EUR50.000 EIT Headstart program as well as two Innofounder grants from the Innovation Fund Denmark.

ObTek

Was granted DKK 255.000 as part of the Innovation Fund Denmark’s special COVID-19 funding to continue their development of better hand hygiene in kindergartens. Furthermore, they won a DKK 50.000 price from VentureCup Denmarks’ Startup Mentor program.

CIDosis

Won several awards at this year’s iGem competition and secured more than DKK 150.000 in soft funding and in-kinds from various funds which enabled them to conduct their first lab testing of their engineered yeast strains. CIDosis is developing a self-monitoring test device for chronic inflammatory diseases.

Flutest Group

Was granted a DKK 25.000 Micro Grant from the Danish Foundation for Entrepreneurship in the spring of 2020 to pursuit their development of an improved influenza infection diagnoses.

INA Innovation

Was granted a DKK 25.000 Micro Grant from the Danish Foundation for Entrepreneurship in the spring of 2020. They have spent the summer developing their first prototypes of a sustainable toothbrush.

LubDub Productions

Launched their first 20 prototypes of their medicine curriculum podcasts and started production of the next 100 programs, ready for launch for the next semester. They also started a collaboration with Kolding Hospital, developing patient information as podcasts.

UMedicine

Was granted a DKK 25.000 Micro Grant from the Danish Foundation for Entrepreneurship in the autumn of 2020 and are busy developing their prototype of a video in different languages to help patients with another ethnic background than Danish to understand medicinal leaflets.

PharmaGO

Was granted a DKK 25.000 Micro Grant from the Danish Foundation for Entrepreneurship in the autumn of 2020 and are busy developing their first prototype to break down language barriers for over-the-counter drugs for travelers.

The success continues after leaving SUND Hub

We are always proud when our alumni teams strive. This year, we’d like to highlight three alumni start-ups who did exceptional well in 2020: Janus Larsen, CEO of Vulcur MedTech who spend a large part of 2020 in the SUND Hub Entrepreneurs in Residence program was granted a EUR1 million grants both from the Eurostars programme under Horizon 2020 and the EIT Health Headstart grant.  

Niels Kvorning and Melatech, whom attended SUND Hub and Health Innovators in 2018 was granted DKK 9,9 mio from the Innovation Fund Denmark. Melatech is a research and development project that will ensure that doctors in a matter of months will be able to appropriate several years of experience in diagnosing skin cancer by way of Artificial Intelligence-supported feedback.

Jakob Rukov, founder of Bugging Denmark and Syngja was granted DKK 1,5 million from the Novo Nordisk Foundation to support their mission: To gently introduce edible insects as an integral part of the culinary and cultural everyday life.

Get involved: New programs in 2021

Maybe you as a student feel inspired by reading about the success of the SUND Hub startups? And maybe you feel a little intimidated? Don’t be! At SUND Hub, we believe that anyone have the ability to learn how to create and develop new solutions in the healthcare sector. It’s a skillset that you can learn in parallel with your studies. And we can reveal to you, the most important component: Get away from your desk and out of the building and start talking to the relevant stakeholders. In the process, we guarantee you that: A): You will gain real-life insights and competences within whatever problem/solution you are working with and B): You will expand your network within the specific area you work with.

So, how do you get started? We currently offer different programs with Deadline: February 3rd: 

  • SUND Hub Incubator / Health InnovatorsThis program is for you with a concrete idea or solution. It includes participation in workshops on relevant themes such as: User involvement, Business Development, Funding (Soft & commercial), presentation techniques and you will get free access to a number of experts within the SUND Hub ecosystems.

  • Academic Internship with ECTS: A program for you who are curious on life as an entrepreneur. In this program, you will gain ECTS point while putting your academic knowledge into practice. Your internship will either be in an existing startup or as an entrepreneur with your own idea.

If you have questions, please do contact Anna and Peter at sundhub@sund.ku.dk. We’re available for informal talks via mail, phone or Zoom. Also, please remember to forward this message to fellow students you believe would be interesting in innovation and entrepreneurship within the healthcare sector.

  • Researcher or Ph.D.? All students enrolled at University of Copenhagen are welcome at SUND Hub. Are you a researcher or Ph.D. with interest in innovation and entrepreneurship, please visit https://healthsciences.ku.dk/innovation/

EIT Health – making it all possible

Both SUND Hub as well as the startups have benefitted greatly from various EIT Health funding programs supporting Innovation, Acceleration and Education within healthcare. Besides the Challenge Track, SUND Hub Incubator and Health Innovators, University of Copenhagen, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences contributed to this years’ Accelerator program at YES!Delft.

Last but not least, a great number of our startups benefitted from EIT Grants – including the EIT Health Headstart Grant that is set up to help startups getting closer to market, receive clinical verification, evaluate patient need and benefit of their product or service as well as attracting further private investment. From SUND Hub, headstart was provided to: Pleaz (LetLeg), PrOxi Biotech (alumni team), VulCur MedTech (alumni team), and SYNCSENSE.

We wish you all a Happy New Year with hope of a fantastic 2021.

Warm regards,

Anna Vestergård Jacobsen and Peter Løvschall

Emner