Savant portfolio company LIQID Medical, has just been selected as one of only six MedTech finalists in the digital health and medical devices category at the Hello Tomorrow Global Challenge, the leading worldwide competition for early-stage deep tech start-ups.
As announced on the Hello Tomorrow website: “An international jury of experts carefully reviewed over 4 000 applications to the Challenge and have identified 70 projects that stood out for their technological innovation, economic viability, leadership, team, and potential impact on our industries, planet and society. These start-ups are making truly accessible healthcare a reality and pioneering treatments to complex health problems”
Who is LIQID Medical?
LIQID Medical is a South African medical device development company pioneering a new class of sight-saving ocular implants that is re-defining the treatment of glaucoma, a leading cause of global blindness, affecting over 76 million people worldwide.
Up until now, the most effective means of treating glaucoma involves draining excess fluid from the eye via the traditional drainage pathway by implantation of a tube-shunt device. A more effective treatment solution has never been developed. Until now.
LIQID Medical Founder, Dr Daemon McClunan, is an eye specialist who has been working on the development of three patented glaucoma implants since 2015. These three core devices OptiShunt, iPortVR, and iFlow, are each designed to fill three clearly defined gaps in the market. These devices have been designed to harness a naturally occurring anatomical mechanism with the potential for clinically effective, cost-saving, and quality-of-life-improving solutions for glaucoma.
This latest achievement comes on the back of a R9.5 million investment from the Technology and Innovation Agency of South Africa, and a R30 million equity funding investment from the SAB Foundation earmarked for technology development, regulatory accreditation, clinical trials, and IP portfolio development over a period of three years.
What is the Hello Tomorrow Summit?
Hello Tomorrow is a renowned international start-up competition dedicated to unlocking the power of deep tech to solve our toughest global challenges.
The Challenge gives deep tech and science-based entrepreneurs around the globe a platform for their projects, providing opportunities for equity-free funding, global visibility and connections with key players in the deep tech ecosystem. It’s a big deal!
The Challenge concludes with the Grand Finals, which will take place during the Hello Tomorrow Global Summit in Paris on the 9th and 10th March 2023.
You can watch LIQID Medical pitch to win at the Hello Tomorrow Global Summit, here.