Somareality: Vienna-based DeepTech Startup Receives €1.5 Million Investment

23 May 2024

Somareality was founded in Vienna in 2019 and develops eye-tracking-based biomarkers to infer a person’s cognitive state. With the first biomarker, they achieved nearly one million in revenue, and by 2026, they aim to introduce more biomarkers, collectively enabling comprehensive non-invasive cognitive monitoring.

Somareality with a Pivot

The current million-dollar investment, supported by local investors Gateway Ventures, Wodak & Partner, Panta Rhei, and Manfred Stockmayer, as well as international funds Startup Wise Guys, Birdhouse Ventures, and Medical Technology Lab, will directly contribute to the development pipeline and further internationalization of the customer business.

“Four years after founding as a spatial computing and eye-tracking consulting firm, we made a strategic pivot last May and launched our first proprietary product,” says Co-CEO Julia Kern. The project-based business transitioned to a B2B SaaS model, and the existing technology was adapted for hardware environments outside of virtual reality.

Team Expansion

The team around founders Adrian Brodesser and Michel Varilek, both with backgrounds in biomedical engineering, was joined last year by Benedikt Gollan. As an expert in applied research in eye tracking and cognitive interpretation, he is responsible for development at Somareality as CSO. Miel Satrapa, a computer scientist who has been with the company since 2020, serves as CFO.

With over 10 scientific publications and emerging patents validating the technology, international giants like Intuitive Surgical and Lufthansa Aviation have been secured as customers.

Somareality: “A New Era of Human-Machine Interaction”

“We are the only ones worldwide specializing in the development of full cognitive monitoring based on eye tracking, outside the lab, and non-invasively,” says Brodesser. “We are pleased that our customers recognize the use and advantages of eye tracking and are steering toward a new era of human-machine interaction together with us.”

www.somareality.com

EPOK Therapeutics announced today the completion of a $9.0m Seed Round financing

23 March 2023

EPOK Therapeutics Inc. (“EPOK” or the “Company”), a preclinical stage biotech company developing diabodies and antibody conjugates, announced today the completion of a $9.0m Seed Round financing, led by Canadian and Italian angel investors.

The proceeds from the financing will support the preclinical development of two proprietary drug candidates.

In conjunction with the financing, the Company appointed a new Board of Directors, with Alessandra Gavirati as Chair, Surya Sankuratri as CEO, co-Founder Prof. Sidhu as Chief Scientific Officer and Luigi Colombo as Chief Operation Officer. 

Co-Founder Prof. Moe will serve as Chief Medical Officer.

About EPOK

EPOK Therapeutics was founded in February 2023, and focuses on the safety and efficacy of clinically validated targets, by developing engineered diabodies and antibody conjugates with improved specificity and safety, and more convenient dosing.

EPOK benefits from two decades of research and innovation in antibody engineering and metabolic diseases, targeting anemia and hypophosphatemia associated with several genetic and induced disease conditions.

Co-Founders Prof. Sachdev Sidhu, Ph.D., and Prof. Orson Moe, MD, have proven track records as entrepreneurs, and contributors to discovery, development, and successful drug launches.

www.epoktherapeutics.com

DYVERTO AG GETS A COMBINED “SEED” FUNDING OF NEARLY 1 MILLION EUROS for the development of a novel treatment for small abdominal aortic aneurysms.

24 August 2022

Dyverto AG, an innovative start-up operating in the vascular sector created by CVLab, announces the entry into the share capital of Davide Bianchi and Nocturnal Labs SpA.

The “seed” investment is intended for the development of a device aimed at stopping and potentially reversing the progression of arterial aneurysms. The funds will be used to complete an in-depth proof of concept for an abdominal application, continue the development of the device and its delivery system and strengthen the company’s IP position.

Built on an idea coming from Prof. Alessandro Bortone, Dyverto’s concept already brings to bear a robust body of preliminary data developed with top research institutions including the “Politecnico di Torino” (CFD), the “Department of Fisica Medica” of the Policlinico Sant’Orsola in Bologna (in vitro modeling and testing) and the “CRABBC”  (Centro di Ricerche ed Applicazioni Biotecnologiche in Chirurgia Cardiovascolare for the animal work). 

According to one of the Clinical Advisors involved in the preliminary evaluations of the technology, “Dyverto could be a game-changing approach to intervene tackling the progression of the disease instead of simply focusing on mechanically addressing its consequences”. 

“We strongly believe in Dyverto’s potential. Through its technology platform we see the opportunity to explore a number of hi-value applications across the vascular field” stated both Luigi Colombo, CEO of Nocturnal Labs and Davide Bianchi”.

ABOUT Dyverto: Dyverto is a med-tech startup recently spun-off by Cardiovascular Lab (CVLab), the first incubator in Europe fully dedicated to the cardiovascular field, scouting and developing innovative ideas coming from the clinical experience.                       Dyverto focuses on the development of novel approaches for the rehabilitation of arteries affected by aneurysms or other life-threatening diseases.

ABOUT Mt-lab: Mt-lab is an operational holding company that supports seed-stage companies to develop products, technologies, and global businesses that advance health. The Mt-lab team’s combination of research, development, clinical, operational and financial experience allows the firm to identify, execute and realize investments across the life sciences industry which can provide benefit and value for patients, doctors and healthcare systems, and reward shareholders with a sound and ethical profit.

ABOUT Davide Bianchi: Davide is an investor/entrepreneur bringing more than 30 years of experience in the med-tech arena with senior positions at leading companies such as WLGore, Edwards LS, Sorin/Livanova and Orthofix. More recently Davide was part of the team orchestrating the creation of Corcym – where he serves as Chairman of the Board – the company that completed the carve-out of the Sorin heart valves business of Livanova.

EVOBIOTECH GETS A “SEED” FUNDING OF € 1 MILLION for the development of new vaccines and therapies based on extracellular vesicles of plant origin

6 August 2021

EvoBiotech, an innovative start-up operating in the biotechnology sector, announces the entry into the share capital of Nocturnal Labs SpA, an Operational Holding Company with a strong innovative vision, and of LuMar.

The “seed” investment for a total of € 1 million to EvoBiotech is intended for the development of a project on extracellular vesicles for oral mRNA-based vaccines, thus simplifying significantly both the distribution chain and the administration of vaccines.
The funds will also be used to consolidate EvoBiotech’s patent portfolio, also continuing in the preclinical development of a second research pipeline that applies the regenerative properties of extracellular vesicles of plant origin for the treatment of chronic wounds by exploiting their strong pro-angiogenic feature helping re-epithelialization.

“We strongly believe in EvoBiotech potential which, already at this stage, offers diversified and very promising technological development assets, based on extremely interesting scientific-technological platforms,” stated Luigi Colombo, CEO of Nocturnal Labs.

ABOUT EvoBiotech: EvoBiotech is a biotechnological startup operating within 2i3T – Company for the Management of the Business Incubator and for the Technology Transfer of the University of Turin – and was founded in 2019 by Prof. Giovanni Camussi, one of the greatest world experts on extracellular vesicles deriving from stem cells and by three scientists, Dr. Chiara Gai, Margherita Pomatto and Maria Chiara Deregibus.
EvoBiotech focuses on the development of regenerative medicine therapies based on this new type of extracellular vesicles and, in particular, aimed at advanced treatment of chronic wounds. Since 2020, the team has initiated projects involving the loading of extracellular vesicles with viral nucleic acids to be used as an oral vaccine.

ABOUT Mt-lab: Mt-lab is an operational holding company that supports seed-stage companies to develop products, technologies, and global businesses that advance health.
The Mt-lab team’s combination of research, development, clinical, operational and financial experience allows the firm to identify, execute and realize investments across the life sciences industry which can provide benefit and value for patients, doctors and healthcare systems, and reward shareholders with a sound and ethical profit.