Five New Start-Ups in Life Sciences & Health Selected for Venture Challenge

SLAM Ortho, 2ndB, Panorama Laboratories, Myonovum and NanoYounique: these are the five teams that have been selected for the Autumn edition of the Venture Challenge, which will start at the end of September.

The Venture Challenge is a coaching programme initiated by the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate for start-ups in the Life Sciences & Health sector who want to bring their product or service to the market. The Dutch Research Council (NWO) has been carrying out the Venture Challenge since this year, working closely with Health~Holland, Top Sector Life Sciences & Health, which was responsible for the organisation since its start in 2008.

Venture pitch

During an intensive 10-week trajectory, including two 3-day bootcamps and weekly coaching sessions, the teams will receive professional guidance from experienced coaches Math Kohnen and Chretien Herben (GameChanger Challenge) in developing their so-called venture pitch. The five teams will start with the first boot camp as early as September 30th. At the end of November, the process will be concluded with the pitches in front of a jury.

Pitching for jury

Meanwhile, the first edition of this year has been completed last week. This ‘Spring edition’, which because of the corona measures had only started in July, had its apotheosis with a series of pitches for the Venture Challenge jury and in the presence of multiple investors in the life sciences. During the Dutch Life Sciences Conference on November 26th, the winner will be announced, as well as the winner of the autumn edition. The winning teams will receive 25,000 euros to further develop their innovation and the business.

Physical event

Coach Chretien Herben looks back on the past edition with satisfaction. ‘I am happy that we were able to gather physically, both for the bootcamps and for the pitches, within the framework of the corona measures. The participants as well as the investors were happy to attend a physical event. The spontaneous interaction and networking between the participants and with the investors is an important element in the Venture Challenge. This is very difficult to match online. Despite the measures taken, we were able to fold it in such a way that it all went well.’ One of the participating teams, MedicalVR, was also featured in a report by the NOS last weekend.

More information about the participants: please see this webpage.

Source: NWO