VoluSense wins the NOME life science start-up competition, the 1st prize of 50,000 DKK, and a fast track to the NOME programme
On October 24, 2017, NOME (Nordic Mentor Network for Entrepreneurship) held its first annual meeting and start-up competition at the Mærsk Tower at the University of Copenhagen. The overall winner of the start-up competition was VoluSense who develops a non-invasive, non-sedative and mask-free respiratory monitoring system for lung function evaluation. Their first product is for hospitalized infants.
The Nordic Mentor Network for Entrepreneurship aims to develop and implement a best-in-class mentoring initiative for high-growth life science start-ups combined with an ambition to position the Nordic countries as a leader in life science. The NOME annual meeting and start-up competition gathered promising life science start-ups, industry leaders, NOME mentors and the Nordic NOME partners (Karolinska Institutet Innovation AB, Medicon Village, Turku Science Park, Oslo Cancer Cluster Incubator, Aleap, Vertical Accelerator, and Accelerace.
“The day was dedicated to celebrating our first year of adding value to life science start-ups, and to welcome the winner of the elite NOME start-up competition,” said Kirsten Drejer, NOME Mentor & Co-founder and former CEO of Symphogen, now a board member of 6 life science companies.
A total of ten promising life science start-ups participated in the start-up competition which was divided into three categories: Medtech, mHealth and Biotech. The competing start-ups were scrutinized in detail and reduced to ten candidates selected by the partners and presented to an expert panel. These were further reduced to three finalists who were presented to a panel of NOME mentors.
A huge boost into a promising future for VoluSense
The Norwegian medtech and diagnostics company VoluSense – a developer of non-invasive, non-sedative and mask-free respiratory monitoring systems for lung function evaluation, was announced as the final winner of the competition at the annual general meeting.
“We regard the award of this prestigious prize by a group of world-class mentors as a huge recognition of our business case and of the clinical need for our solution,” said Otto Skolling, Chairman of the Board at VoluSense.
NOME mentors include world-class professionals from all over the Nordics with diverse backgrounds such as serial entrepreneurs, investors, clinical experts and representatives from larger biotech/pharma and medtech companies.
“VoluSense can also join other projects and start-ups to participate in a boot camp in the USA, where they will have valuable access to FDA experts and contacts,” Kirsten Drejer concluded.
By winning the NOME start-up competition VoluSence secured the first prize of 50,000 DKK and a fast track to the NOME elite mentor network for life science start-ups.
Catch the atmosphere from the day here:
The participating startups were:
Biotech: Venomaid from Denmark, DraupnirBio (Denmark) & Cellevate (Sweden).
MedTech: Prediktor Medical (Norway), Octlight (Denmark) & VoluSence (Norway).
mHealth: Monsenso (Denmark), Peili Vision (Finland) & ScioReality (Sweden).
+200 start-ups, industry leaders, scientists, NOME mentors & country partners participated in the event.
The NOME start-up competition at Mærsk tower in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Ten start-ups pitched their medtech, mHealth og biotech innovation on stage during the event.
The three category winners: CEO Thomas Lethenborg from Monsenso, Otto Skolling, Chairman of the Board at VoluSense and Simon Glerup CEO of DraupnirDraupnir Bio.
