German startup secures funding. Berlin-based digital health startup mika has landed a seven-figure financing deal from venture capital firm Ananda Impact Ventures and VC Fonds Technologie Berlin, managed by the IBB investment company. The exact sum was not disclosed to the media.
The startup, founded in 2017 by Dr Gandolf Finke and Dr Jan Simon Raue, has developed an app to support cancer patients and their families, in collaboration with the Charité university hospital in Berlin and University Hospital Leipzig.
Mika said the new funds would be used to carry out a clinical study and further develop the app.
“With Ananda Impact Ventures and IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft [investment company], we are pleased that we were able to convince two experienced representatives of the venture capital scene of the value of mika,” Dr Finke said in a statement.
Leeds looks to foster growth in the healthtech sector. A suite of representatives from NHS organisations, local authorities, five universities and a regional enterprise partnership in Leeds announced at the beginning of this week that they will work together to drive investment in healthtech in the area and support new solutions that can improve patient and population healthcare.
The Association of British HealthTech Industries and the Leeds, Leeds Beckett, Bradford, Huddersfield and York universities are among the organisations that have signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).
“This MoU signals an important step towards embracing the opportunities and realising the ambitions set out in the Government’s Industrial Strategy,” said Professor John Fisher from the University of Leeds.
“It paves the way for us to reduce fragmentation, further harness expertise and capability and radically strengthen the Leeds City Region’s position as a leading global player in healthtech.”
Leeds, the third biggest city in the UK, already hosts around 250 healthtech businesses and the NHS Digital headquarters.
European Commission to appoint new members for eHealth Stakeholder Group. The European Commission has issued a call for expression of interest for those interested to join the eHealth Stakeholder Group.
Up to 40 members will be selected, with an expectation that they will act as “expert representatives” of organisations in the sector for a three-year term. The aim is to further the digital transformation of healthcare across the EU and add to policy development, with cybersecurity and AI being some of the key areas of focus.
Applications can be submitted until 27 September.
Siemens Healthineers to buy Corindus. Medtech giant Siemens Healthineers has announced that it plans to acquire Massachusetts-headquartered company Corindus, maker of robotic systems for minimally invasive vascular therapy procedures, in a $1.1bn (€988m) deal. The company said it expected the transaction to close before the end of the year.
In a statement, Michel Terin, president of the Advanced Therapies business at Siemens Healthineers, said: “With the addition of Corindus to our strong therapies portfolio we sharpen our procedural focus and will grow by expanding precision medicine and improving clinical outcomes. In the future, our digital and artificial intelligence-based tools will help to integrate the aspects of image-guidance and therapy even further.”
