EIT Health Germany Series 6: Crowdfunding Doesn't Work for Healthcare and the Rise of Digital Visual Stress
Two things are important to keep in mind when assessing the current state of digital health investments: the pandemic changed the habits of clinicians who now know the potential of technology in reaching their patients in a more convenient way. Secondly, the global economy is in flux at the moment, so healthcare isn’t the only sector experiencing caution in investing.
One of the more prominent news in July was that according to Sifted and Dealroom, healthcare seed investments in Europe surpassed Fintech investments in June, making healthtech industry the industry that’s attracting most investments.
At the same time, in the US, Rock Health reported that digital health startups in the US raised 10.3 billion USD in the first half year of 2022, and StartupHealth reported a lower amount of investments compared to 2021. As StartupHealth noted, the 16B raised globally in Q1 and Q2, is still much more than in the first half of the year 2020.
“We shouldn't forget the global macroeconomic situation at the moment. If we look at the world economy and what's happening, we see declines throughout every sector right now. So we cannot say that for example, healthcare or every other sector is performing badly right now, because everything is performing badly, right? There is still a lot of money out there and we can also feel this as a venture capital firm,” says Simon Molitor, Associate Project Manager at the VC firm Aescuvest.
Crowdfunding in healthcare
Aescuvest is an investment company based in Germany. Founded in 2014, it started off as a crowdfunding company focused on digital health solutions. The innovative approach of “democratizing investing”, as used to be the slogan of the company, turned out not to work very well in practice, so the company transitioned to a more traditional model of investing. Today, it is a deal-by-deal venture capital firm, strictly investing in European startups. The portfolio currently includes 18 companies.
Digital Visual Stress
One of the investment companies is Vivior - a Swiss-based startup aiming at decreasing digital visual stress-related problems. “Today, we wake up in the morning and the first thing we do is look at our cell phones. The next thing is we're having breakfast and we use our iPads. Then we go to work, we're spending eight, nine hours in front of digital screens. And then at home, we are enjoying the world of, Netflix and other platforms. So our screen time has increased massively,” says Michael Mrochern, CEO of Vivior. He is an Engineer in Physics, Doctor of Theoretical Medicine, and Entrepreneur in the ophthalmic and vision care industries. In the last 30 years, he developed several technological solutions related to ophthalmology, and has 25 national and international patents.
Sedentary life and increased screen time-related problems include getting dry eyes because of a reduced blinking rate. Neck and back pain are common in people spending hours daily in front of computers. Researchers are analyzing the impact of screen time on the risk of children developing myopia - short-sightedness, but the results are mixed.
Measuring environmental factors
Vivior developed a wearable sensor that doesn’t use a microphone, camera or track an individual’s location. “The technology is very similar to what is used today in self-driving cars. There are little lasers inside, that continuously measure distance. And if you drive around with your car, you're scanning your environment. That means you're getting information about distances at various locations. We put motion sensors in this little device, as well as distance sensors. And by just your body motion, by walking around, sitting around by your activities, we can actually recognize what you're looking at. If you look at the monitor, if you look at the cell phone, if you look at a TV or if you're outside or inside. We're getting what we call a visual behavior pattern,” explains Michael Mrochen.
Based on the visual behavior pattern, Vivior then prepared recommendations for the adjustment of the computer monitor, light conditions, breaks, etc.
This is just an excerpt. Tune in the full discussion in iTunes or Spotify.
Questions addressed:
Simon, Michael, welcome. I want to start this discussion with the current atmosphere around digital health investments in Europe. Based on data by Dealroom, Sifted recently reported that in Europe, investments in health tech surpassed fintech investments in June. What’s your observation of the digital health space in the last two years? In the US and globally Rock Health and StartupHealth detected a decline in funding in the first half of 2022 compared to 2021.
Simon aescuvest is a FinTech company, with a special focus on financing digital healthcare solutions. In cooperation with EIT Health, and a growing network of partnerships across Europe, you evaluate the most promising healthcare startups and provide them with equity investments. Can you explain how aescuvest differentiates from traditional investment companies? How exactly do you work?
Simon: Can you share more about aescuvest’s porfolio and selection process? 18 companies have currently raised money with the help of the platform.
Simon: How is the current market situation impacting investments and funds aescuvest is raising?
Michael, you’re a Member of Investment Committee aescuvest, a crowdfunding platform for equity investments. What’s the story between this role and Vivior?
Michael: You’re an Engineer in Physics, Doctor of Theoretical Medicine and Entrepreneur in the ophthalmic and vision care industries. You developed multiple technologies in the field of ophthalmologic medical devices that lead to new applications and products to the market. Can you share with us a brief overview of innovation in the ophthalmic and vision care industry? What kind of technologies did you develop? You have over 25 national and international patents.
Michael: Let’s explain the problem first. Vivior is detecting an individual’s digital visual stress. What exactly is digital visual stress? In the clinical term, visual stress refers to a sensitivity to visual patterns, particularly stripes. This problem can cause visual perceptual and reading problems.
Michael: Vivior developed a sensor that captures various types of data which is then used for personalizing vision improvement interventions. The monitor, which is worn on glasses measures doesn’t have a camera, or microphone and it doesn’t measure an individual’s location. Can you explain how it works and what is measured?
Michael: Can you take us through the development process of the Vivior wearable sensor? We know that posture and blue light are a problem. How did you combine all the knowledge related to problems with sedentary work behind the computer into one sensor?
Michael: What kinds of data is gathered and how is it used?
