6th edition of CRAASH Barcelona kicks off
<p>The acceleration program promoted by Biocat and CIMIT (Boston) met this September in Barcelona with the six groups selected to participate this year. We’ll tell you more about them in this article.</p>
The acceleration program promoted by Biocat in collaboration with CIMIT (Boston), CRAASH Barcelona, kicked off its 6th edition with a meeting at Tech Barcelona (Pier 01 and 07) this month.
Over three days, 20, 21 and 22 September, participants took part in sessions on entrepreneurship, data science and identifying and mapping stakeholders, among others. The conferences were led by Xavier Cos, Innovation and Research Officer at the Catalan Institute of Health; Judit Anido, co-founder of Nuage Therapeutics and Mosaic Biomedicals; Marc Combalia, founder of the AI consultancy product ken·ko, former director of artificial intelligence for the Skin Cancer group at Hospital Clinic Barcelona and CTO at Athena Tech; and John Collins, director of Innovation Platforms at CIMIT.
Below is a summary of the companies and projects selected to participate this year:
1. Embryocure
Embryocure is a project from the Josep Carreras Leukemia Research Institute that has developed an in ovo diagnostic solution that offers the earliest and most profitable assessment of a drug’s potential: between 50% and 66% faster and 100% more affordable than other technologies from the competition.
2. Fecundis
This company has created the HyperSperm solution, a sperm activation lab kit that boosts the number and quality of embryos obtained in hospitals and fertility clinics, where doctors work to offer effective in vitro fertilization treatments for infertile patients.
3. Intelligent IDAM
This project from Giromed Institute comprehensive solution to Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) that covers the whole value chain -from prescription to treatment and follow up, ensuring patient adherence- to promote better quality of life and healthy aging.
4. MedBrain
The startup has developed a diagnostic support system for healthcare professionals in settings with limited resources. MedBrain helps healthcare staff with limited machinery and primary care resources at every step of the diagnostic process and offers triage capacities to determine the severity of the disease, clinical urgency and type of action needed.
5. Time is Brain
This company, a spinoff of Germans Trias i Pujol University Hospitala medical device called BraiN20®, which monitors brain function to speed up access to and improve the results of endovascular treatment (EVT). The solution uses a technology that constantly monitors the probability of a positive outcome for acute ischemic stroke (AIS) patients from the beginning of the stroke, based on a new validated, patented biomarker.
6. Ysotope Theranostics
This spinoff of the Vall d’Hebron Research Institute (VHIR) bases its technology on non-invasive analysis of 100% of the tumor tissue in patients with advanced cancer using radiotracers that combine antibodies with radioactive isotopes and act like a GPS, tracking the location and concentration of antibodies through its exploration. YSOTOPE aims to offer the first radiotracer for neuroblastoma, an aggressive minority pediatric cancer, which promises to improve patient selection for immunotherapy and deliver more precise results.
Participants of the sixth edition of CRAASH Barcelona with mentors, John Collins (CIMIT, Boston) and Biocat.
Three phases to accelerate the projects
During the gathering, Biocat and CIMIT explained how the training works and introduced the ecosystem in Catalonia, as well as presenting the goals for accelerating the projects at each phase of the program. We’ll look at them below:
- Phase 1 – Validation (July/September 2023): Establishing the value proposition and validating the problem-solution and solution-market fits, specifically for the healthcare technology market.
- Phase 2 – European Immersion (October/November 2023): Participants do a deep dive in the Catalan, Spanish and German life sciences and healthcare ecosystems. They learn to communicate and perfect their pitch to investors, as well as making contacts at other leading European companies in the health sector through collaborations with the Life Science Accelerator Baden-Württemberg and Next Mannheim.
- Phase 3 – US Investors (December 2023): Networking and market validation opportunities with experts and institutions from Boston, the most important life sciences and healthcare ecosystem in the world, where participants can forge connections online with the ecosystem and pitch their projects to experienced investors.
New this year
This 6th edition of CRAASH Barcelona has two important changes. On one hand, the program has taken into account the challenges posed by the Catalan Ministry of Health in selecting participants: mental health and emotional wellbeing, planetary health, healthy aging and reproductive and sexual health, represented by Fecundis (reproductive and sexual health) and Medbrain (planetary health).
And, on the other, the collaboration agreement between Biocat and the European Innovation Council (EIC) for the “Ecosystem Partnership and co-investment support program”, which aims to promote acceleration and business growth in European ecosystems. The company Time is Brain, which has been awarded an EIC Accelerator grant, took part in the program thanks to this collaboration.