Biocat has opened the call to take part in the 4th annual CRAASH Barcelona acceleration program, which helps researchers and entrepreneurs launch innovations in the healthtech arena to market, in collaboration with the CIMIT accelerator (Boston).
The program this year, with a hybrid format that combines virtual and in-person sessions, is exclusively for projects related to the field ofmedical devices, diagnostics or digital health that have come out of research centers and institutes, universities or are promoted by an entrepreneur based on (or with a link) to the BioRegion.
Selected projects will be guided by expert mentors from around Europe and CIMIT (Boston), the most experienced accelerator in the world, which has promoted more than 1,000 projects over 20 years. The projects will validate their technology and how they fit the market in some of the most important healthcare ecosystems in the US (Boston) and Europe (Barcelona and other European cities).
The program is geared towards projects with TRL 3-6 (proof of concept / early clinical trials). Companies that have already been created can submit proposals if they are looking for a healthcare application for their technology and/or to find/validate their business model.
The program will kick off this September and last three months, until December, when participants will travel to Boston to interact with one of the most powerful life sciences ecosystems in the world. In fact, this experience with the life sciences ecosystem in this US city is one of the most significant benefits of CRAASH Barcelona.
The program is broken down into three phases:
This is the 4th edition of CRAASH Barcelona, which has accelerated 29 projects so far. One of them is ABLE Human Motion, a light robotic exoskeleton that helps patients with spinal injuries walk again, facilitating their rehabilitation. Alfons Carnicero, co-founder of the project, explains in this interview how the program helped them put the finishing touches on their business model.
“We did more than 100 interviews with all the interest groups associated with the product, from patients to doctors, which helped us make it better and come up with a convincing value proposition for each one. Under the guidance of experts who have helped us in areas like regulatory affairs, business models and finance. CRAASH Barcelona helped us mature our project very quickly,” explains Carnicero.
In fact, ABLE ended up evolving its project and, after the program, closed a round of funding that made it possible to adapt the exoskeleton technology for paraplegics.
Another project that went through the CRAASH Barcelona program is Flomics. “The program helped us understand the market we were moving into, to identify all the players and establish the right value proposition for each one. During the project, our positioning changed completely. It also gave us the contacts that have made it possible for us to break into the sector. Thanks to all of that, I think we’re one step closer to success,” explains João Curado, founder of Flomics, in this interview.
Remember: the call for proposals to participate is open now through June 15 on the website: www.craashbarcelona.org. |