Grants4Apps Open Innovation program selected top 5 startups, 1 from China

A team from Shanghai was chosen as one of the winners in the open innovation program Grants4Apps (G4A) Accelerator launched by LifeScience company Bayer. The program kicked off its second round earlier this year, and 215 teams from 48 countries around the world submitted their project ideas. China not only contributed 22 submissions, ranking second worldwide in the competition, but also got two submissions on the short list and one final winner.

The submitted projects cover software services, technologies, and apps that have the potential to create value for physicians and patients. Popular submissions include diabetes management apps, cardiology related apps, apps empowering the patients and doctors such as telemedicine apps and healthy living gadgets.

After a careful evaluation process, 5 startups were named for Startups 2015. These 5 projects were designed by teams of scientists, entrepreneurs, and scientists from IT, medical, biotech and engineering related fields from America, Estonia, China, Germany and Canada.

The final winner from China is called Sendinaden. The company aims to produce smart breathing masks to help users manage their breathing patterns and habits.

David Hartmann, founder and CEO said. "We saw that breathing was the remote control to the body, and that if you could get people to breathe more deeply, more slowly then you'd decrease stress and increase health - directly in line with Grants4Apps focus on a better life."

From the beginning of August 2015, the Shanghai-based startup Sendinaden, will spend 5 months commercializing their product at one of the most prestigious healthcare accelerators of Europe, the Bayer Grants4Apps accelerator in Berlin. A diverse group including ethnic Chinese, French and Germans, the team is a clear example of how courage and curiosity help bring Chinese innovation to the world stage, given the encouragement of entrepreneurship by the Chinese government.

Grants4Apps has been around since 2013. During that time it's brought several startups to successful commercialization, showing the role that large corporations have in nurturing and developing start-ups. Focused on helping people live better lives, Grants4Apps looks at all kinds of healthcare solutions, from novel business models and devices, to apps. It's a global program, attracting teams from all over the globe. In 2015 the program opened its doors to Bayer employees for the first time. Submissions flooded in which reflected Bayer's innovation spirit as stated by its mission "science for a better life".

"We originally got together because we realized that there was a wasted opportunity. People were wearing filter masks and saw them as an inconvenience. We saw them as an opportunity, as a platform, to drive other ideas," says chief operating officer, Vivian Hartmann. That's exactly what they're bringing to market, helping give direct feedback to people about their breathing via a filter mask that also provides clean air.

"At the same time we aim to disrupt the way consumer electronics devices are being brought to market today," says Vivian. "For niche devices, the fixed costs of coming to market and working with a large OEM (original equipment manufacturer) means that bringing such a product to the consumer is nearly impossible. By getting the consumer to 3D-print everything except for the electronics module, we can customize a solution for each consumer and at the same time reduce costs."

Challenges that urban citizens in China face are the breeding ground for innovative ideas that can bring diverse groups together to find solutions that improve people's lives. "Breathing is something we mostly do unconsciously, but as a martial artist I know the effect that bad breathing has on my health and on my relaxation and focus," says David. "If we can train ourselves to breathe more effectively then we can solve a great many problems in our lives." The Sendinaden product aims to target the tens of millions of middle class consumers in Asian cities that use smartphones.

But how products get to the consumer is also important. The standard value chain for the IT industry is that a large brand owner subcontracts to manufacturers who subcontract to other manufacturers and so on. The result is little control on sustainability and quality in the value chain. It also means that size matters - large volume products get much more advantageous conditions than small volume ones. 3D Printing - and its larger parent digital manufacturing - promises to change how devices get to consumers. This impacts costs, sustainability and will modify the expectations that consumers have towards brand owners and their devices.

"It's hard for existing players to drive change," says David. "They have fixed costs invested and they are tied to an old model. In a small startup we can bring new forms of manufacturing to a concrete product. This has an impact on waste and reusability. It also has an impact on how consumers think about their involvement in the devices that they interact with."