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After awarding €5.5M to 11 startups in Europe to support business continuity due to disruptions caused by the pandemic last year, Munich-based EIT Health, today backs Smart4Diagnostics (S4DX), a manufacturer of a device for blood sample measurement.

S4DX raises Series A

In a recent development, German healthtech startup S4DX announced that it has raised €5M in its Series A round of funding from private investors, including SARSTEDT AG & Co. KG, as well as the EIC Fund, established in 2020 by the European Commission for direct equity investment in breakthrough technologies.

The raised capital will be used to further accelerate the market entry of S4DX’s innovative blood sampling system.

Through ongoing support from the EIT Health programmes Gold Track and Bridgehead, the team also received access to strategic mentoring, finance, investors, and the largest European healthcare innovation network.

How was S4DX born?

The company mentions on its website, “Our idea was born in the lab. We worked for many years with human samples. In our daily routine, we realised that the quality of human samples in preanalytics remained a black box for us. We neither had automised nor standardised data to correspond with the technical quality of our laboratory analysers. Thus, we decided this needs to change – for reliable diagnostics for labs, medical doctors and patients.”

Smart4Diagnostics co-founders are molecular biology PhD, Dr Yannick Timo Böge; software engineer Julia Flototto; regulatory affairs expert Hans Maria Heÿn; and orthopaedic and traumatology specialist, Malte Dancker.

Closing the data gap between blood collection and lab analysis

S4DX was formed in 2018 as part of the EIT Health Wild Card programme. The company’s device provides a real-time monitoring solution for medical diagnostics.

According to Dr Hans Maria Heyn, CEO & co-founder of S4DX, “As many as three in four medical decisions are based on diagnostic results – often blood samples. Currently, this process is being managed manually, which can lead to errors and can cause many issues, including slow diagnosis, repeated tests on the patient, and wasted resources. We need to revolutionise this crucial but underdeveloped area of the healthcare value chain to bring innovation where it can have instant and substantial impact.”

Smart4Diagnostics (previously DX Labtrack) is working towards creating a new standard in diagnostics with support from EIT Health. The startup has developed the “digital human blood sample fingerprint”, a data picture of all quality aspects for human blood samples from the collection until lab arrival. 

With its device – “Sample-CheckIn”, the data-chain for human samples starts immediately after collection, monitoring it from the moment it is taken to the moment it arrives in the lab. This helps in fixing any errors identified and corrected immediately. It means that the data is collected and instantly reported into the laboratory while the patient is still present.

Hence, it not only increases the accuracy of the data but also avoids the need for repeat patient visits.

About EIT Health

EIT Health enables citizens to lead healthier and productive lives by delivering products, services, and concepts that improve quality of life and contribute to the sustainability of healthcare across Europe. It has a network of health innovators with approximately 150 partners and is supported by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a body of the European Union. 

Beginning with two challenges set by EIT Health, the annual Wild Card programme invites talented innovators from across Europe to respond with their ideas. Successful applicants start their journey with a hackathon; putting them through their paces on everything from team formation, critical thinking, business model validation and pitching. Finally, participants pitch their solution to a panel of industry leaders to secure a spot in the finals, at which point they pitch for EIT Health investment to incorporate their company and bring their solution to market.

Jorge Juan Fernández García, Director of Innovation, EIT Health, says, “We are immensely proud of all that the S4DX team have achieved, including the latest funding round and attention of private investors as well as the EIC. As our first ‘Wild Card’, it is encouraging to see the swift progress that has been made since we first met them just a few short years ago. We look forward to continuing to support S4DX in their journey to market.”