SaisiR and GutUp win the 5th edition of Prêt, Partez, Pitch!
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The curtain has fallen on the 5ᵉ edition of the Genilem competition Prêt? Partez, Pitch! In front of a packed house of over 200 people, seven finalist projects rose to the challenge of convincing jury and audience in just 151 seconds. Five of them are future gems of Swiss Health Valley. And two life sciences projects won!
The Grand Winners
Claudia Bigoni distinguished herself by winning two prizes:
– GENILEM Prize, worth CHF 30,000.
– Prix du Public, a cash prize of CHF 2,500.
One in four people will suffer a stroke in their lifetime. Of these, 25% will suffer after-effects and will no longer be able to use their arms, preventing them from performing simple everyday tasks such as dressing, showering or cooking. SaisiR proposes a new therapeutic approach aimed at recreating bridges between the brain and the upper limbs. The company is developing a software platform that integrates several non-invasive neurotechnologies aimed at stimulating the creation of new cerebral connections between the brain and the arms in order to recover the use of the latter.
The young start-up SaisiR will benefit from a one-year mentoring program tailored to the needs of the project, offered by Genilem’s business development experts and specialists from Vaudoise Assurances.
Élise Garcia won the CHF 25,000 Prix du Digital with GutUp, a project that aims to improve intestinal microbiota by means of an app. Centers may also open in several Swiss cities, offering cooking classes, sports activities and meetings with dieticians.
Talented finalists
Our congratulations also go to the other five finalists, who demonstrated remarkable talent and passion:
– Safe2Eat by Jessica Lavier, whose ambition is to become the Yuka of allergies, with an application that could detect all allergens by taking a photo of the list of ingredients on packaging.
– Healium by Moncef Assa, a connected box for dispensing medication.
– Neurovia Bioelectronics by William Esposito, who has created a stimulating stent for renal nerves to improve blood pressure, that is both reversible and deployable through a minimally-invasive implant.
– SideLights by Arthur Claessens, an innovative bicycle lighting system.
– Neology Hydrogen by Ruben Feldman, a proposal to replace oil-fired generators with amonics-powered generators.
Each of them made their mark on the competition through the exceptional quality of their pitch, testifying to the dynamism and ingenuity of the entrepreneurial ecosystem.