Innitius receives a boost from the European Commission through the “EIC Accelerator” programme

With this support, the Spinoff will accelerate the development of FineBirth, its Women’s Health diagnostic platform.

 

The INNITIUS project FineBirth-190144075 ‘Diagnosis of Women’s Health Pathologies through the analysis of cervical consistency’ has been selected by the European Commission to receive funding under the EIC Accelerator call. Thanks to this support, which includes both non-repayable grants and investment by the EIC Fund, Europe is firmly committed to the development of INNITIUS technologies. INNITIUS aims to improve the health and quality of life of millions of pregnant women and newborns by reducing the impact of pathologies such as preterm birth, induction of labour or cervical cancer in our society.

INNITIUS’ first product, FineBirth, is aimed at the diagnosis of Preterm Birth Threats (PTB), a pathology considered to be one of the main causes of hospitalisation of patients during pregnancy. Currently, 85% of women hospitalised with symptoms of preterm labour do not deliver and are treated unnecessarily with drugs; on the other hand, almost 20% of patients who are diagnosed as False Threats of Preterm Birth eventually return to the ED, giving birth prematurely during the same pregnancy. Although there are several solutions on the market, their accuracy rates do not allow to address the problem directly.

The spin-off INNITIUS, headquartered in Bilbao (Bizkaia), has developed a pathology assessment method based on the analysis of the consistency of the cervical tissue of the pregnant patient with symptoms of labour, and introducing this parameter into an Artificial Intelligence (AI) network, which provides the specialist with a diagnosis that facilitates decision-making.

The company has the vision to apply the novel method developed for obtaining consistency to other women’s health pathologies, with a clear objective: to build the largest cervical consistency database in the world, which can be used to dramatically improve women’s and newborn health globally.

INNITIUS -Spinoff of the University of Granada and the Andalusian Health System– was born in December 2017 from the hand of Rubén Molina, CEO of the Company, and Dr. Francisca Molina, clinical director along with 8 founding partners who to this day continue to develop innovative technologies based on the use of Torsion Waves. During its five years of life, the business project has received investment from institutions such as the Botín Foundation through the Mind the Gap bioentrepreneurship programme, Seed Capital Bizkaia, Basque FCR, WA4Steam and other Business Angels in the sector, totalling more than €1,500,000 in private investment, and more than €800,000 in support from public entities such as ENISA, EIT Health, BEAZ and SPRI, among others.

 

 

About the EIC Accelerator programme

The EIC Accelerator offers start-ups and SMEs grants of up to EUR 2.5 million combined with equity investments through the EIC Fund ranging from EUR 0.5 to 15 million. In addition to financial support, all projects benefit from a range of business acceleration services providing access to top experts, companies, investors and ecosystem players.

Companies can submit their ideas to the EIC Accelerator at any time. For ideas that meet the EIC’s criteria of excellence, impact and level of risk, companies are invited to prepare full applications for submission at one of the regular cut-off dates.

Since its launch in March 2021, more than 6,500 start-ups and SMEs have submitted their ideas and more than 3,330 have submitted full applications. The companies announced today are among the 1092 that applied at the last 2022 cut-off on 5 October, and join the 314 companies selected so far to receive EIC funding. The next deadlines for full applications are 11 January 2023, 22 March 2023, 7 June 2023 and 4 October 2023.

 

About the entities that have supported the company:

• University of Granada: The UGR, through its Research Results Transfer Office (OTRI), accompanied the promoters in the valorisation process that gave rise to INNITIUS. Among these actions, it is worth highlighting the grants within the UGR’s Own Research and Transfer Plan to carry out proofs of concept and the preparation of proposals aimed at participating in competitive calls such as Caixa Impulse or Mind the Gap of the Botín Foundation.
• Andalusian Health Service through the Andalusian Public Foundation Progreso y Salud: The Andalusian Public Foundation Progreso y Salud is an organisation dependent on the Ministry of Health and Families of the Andalusian Regional Government that provides services to the Andalusian Public Health System through three main lines of activity: (1) The I+i Line, for Research and Innovation in Health; (2) The IAVANTE Line, for Training and Evaluation of Professional Competences; (3) The ICT Line, for Information and Communication Technologies.
• Mind the Gap: This is a Botín Foundation programme that promotes biotech start-ups by investing up to half a million euros over two years and the incorporation of an experienced professional to guide and support the entrepreneurial team.
• Bizkaia Provincial Council: through the public companies Seed Capital Bizkaia, whose objective is to foster innovation, social impact and the promotion and regeneration of the business fabric in Bizkaia, and Beaz, an entity whose objective is to support companies and entrepreneurs in their efforts to create new projects, innovate and internationalise.
• BASQUE FCR: Venture capital fund managed by Gestión de Capital Riesgo del País Vasco, SGEIC, S.A. of the SPRI Group with the aim of promoting the creation and development of technology-based companies located in the Basque Country.
• SPRI: Basque Business Development Agency.
• WA4Steam: WA4STEAM is a growing international community of women investors seeking to expand the female entrepreneurial presence in STEAM fields.
• EIT Health: a network of top innovators in health, with approximately 150 partners, and is supported by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a body of the European Union. We collaborate across countries to deliver new solutions that enable Europe’s citizens to live longer and better lives.