Image: Sirichai netthong/Shutterstock
A promising Irish start-up developing wearable technology to track vital signs was one of two non-US start-ups to join a New York accelerator.
Dublin-based start-up Think Biosolution has received major financial backing to the tune of $100,000 after being named as one of the 10 finalists of the Luminate NY accelerator in New York.
The accelerator programme for optics, photonics and imaging technologies is the largest of its kind in the world, and Think Biosolution is the only European start-up to make the final cohort.
The competition received interest from more than 100 applicants from around the world during the first round, including teams from Canada, Switzerland, Ireland, Germany, Scotland, India, China, Russia, Qatar, Lebanon, Israel and the US.
Featured as Siliconrepublic.com’s Start-up of the Week in March of this year, Think Biosolution’s product, QuasaR, is a wearable personal wellness trainer that helps users to manage their obesity, stress, heart and respiratory conditions.
Potential $2m prize
The international team led by Shourjya Sanyal will now take part in the Luminate NY accelerator starting in January of next year, lasting for six months.
At the end of the programme, it will compete in a demo day with the nine other start-ups, where they will vie for more than $2m in follow-on funding.
Speaking of what the initial funding of $100,000 means for the company, Sanyal said to Siliconrepublic.com that it will allow it to work with US-based sports apparel manufacturers in addition to UK and Irish brands.
It will also mean that part of its business development team will now move to Rochester, New York, to facilitate design validation testing for between four and five potential US clients.
This isn’t the first taste of success for the Think Biosolution, having been included in Google’s Adopt a Startup programme, which helped the company fine-tune its business development process.
It has also been a finalist in several start-up competitions abroad, including Startup Olé in Spain, and SPIE Startup Challenge in San Francisco.
