Incredible 66 ideas were submitted to the Challenge, with three finalists in each category. These six finalists from the U.S., the U.K., Switzerland, Ireland, South Africa and France pitched their projects live on stage in Bern in front of 300 guests and an international jury. The first prizes of 100.000 USD in funding and in-kind support each went to MYNERVA (Switzerland) in the category Diabetes Devices and to Spotlight-AQ (U.K.) in the category Digital Diabetes.

“The DCB Open Innovation Challenge is our yearly highlight and our contribution to help the best startups in diabetes technology with a variety of services and sustainable connections. We are thrilled to continue our collaboration with all the finalists”,

says Ema Grabenweger, Innovation Manager and organiser of the DCB Start-Up Night.

1st Place Diabetes Devices: MYNERVA

Derek Brandt (CEO DCB), Greta Ehlers (Business Development DCB), Greta Preatoni (CEO MYNERVA) and Maren Schinz (Innovation Manager DCB)

MYNERVA, winner of the category Diabetes Devices, is developing a unique wearable device for people living with diabetic neuropathy. The device restores the sense of touch and decreases pain through a non-invasive electrical nerve stimulation driven by AI algorithms.

In her pitch, CEO Greta Preatoni emphasised the impact this can have on people’s quality of live, giving them back the ability to walk with more ease and without pain.

1st Place Digital Diabetes: Spotlight-AQ

Ema Grabenweger (Innovation Manager DCB), Katharine Barnard (Spotlight-AQ) and Greta Ehlers (Business Development DCB)

Spotlight-AQ, winner of the category Digital Diabetes, is on a mission to improve routine visits by helping people with diabetes to feel heard and doctors feel empowered to care. It is a novel validated infographic assessment platform highlighting user priority concerns and immediate mapped resources to meet those unmet needs. 

In her pitch, CSO Katharine Barnard emphasised the role this can play within the constraints of existing healthcare systems and structures, benefiting people with diabetes, while reducing burnout among treating physicians. 

A Night of Innovation and Celebration

All participating start-ups ready to celebrate with mentors, organisers and jury members

The DCB Start-Up Night marks the finale of the DCB Open Innovation Challenge and was celebrated accordingly. The two winners were awarded 100.000 USD each, consisting of 50.000 USD in funding and 50.000 USD in in-kind support (services provided by DCB and its partner network). The four remaining finalists received 20.000 USD each, consisting of 10.000 USD in funding and 10.000 USD in-kind support:

The four finalists pitching live on stage 

Diabetes Devices

Fada Medical (Ireland): Fada Medical has developed a technology that can extend an infusion site cannula’s performance for up to 30 days to support long term insulin pump use for people with type 1 diabetes. They use a first-of-its-kind method to successfully delivery a therapeutic, such as insulin, into subcutaneous tissue and past any blockage that can occur from the foreign body response.

Eclypia (France): Eclypia is developing a unique non-invasive sensing platform targeting health and wellness. Its first product is a non-invasive Continuous Glucose Monitoring device built on outstanding new and disruptive photonics technologies.

Digital Diabetes

Africa Diabetes Chat (South Africa): Sweet Life has been creating easy-to-understand diabetes information for the community since it started in 2011, but over the past 3 years had a specific focus on testing out the most effective formats, language and languages (South Africa has 11 official languages). They are on a mission to solve diabetes education in South Africa and pave the way for it to be solved in all of Africa if the system is built in the right way. How? A WhatsApp chatbot.

Gluroo (United States): Gluroo is a collaborative diabetes management app with a well-known usability: it’s a chat app! The messaging group is your GluCrew, and Gluroo provides high-quality integrations with CGMs and Pumps. Those integrations contribute to Gluroo’s diabetes Event Log – the GEL.  That GEL is shared and synchronized in real-time across all the devices so everyone can stay in sync, in real-time.

“We are especially proud of the engagement and growth of this year’s teams and we are looking forward to continuing the work with one common goal – to make life better for people with diabetes”, 

says Maren Schinz, DCB Innovation Manager and responsible for the Open Innovation Challenge 2023.

About the DCB Open Innovation Challenge

After the initial launch in 2021, the DCB Open Innovation Challenge took place for the third time this year. The aim of the Challenge is to promote innovative, international projects in the field of diabetes management. With a total prize money of 280.000 USD, the DCB Open Innovation Challenge is one of the world’s most generous international awards in the area of diabetes. Applications are open to start-ups, medical and research professionals, and individuals.