Virtual patients for clinical studies: Bayern Kapital invests in digital health start-up Virtonomy

Virtual patients for clinical studies: Bayern Kapital invests in digital health start-up Virtonomy

Landshut / Munich, Germany, April 15, 2021 – As part of a seed round, Bayern Kapital, the venture capital organisation of Germany’s Free State of Bavaria, invests in Virtonomy, a digital health start-up developing an innovative, database-driven software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution for producers of medical devices. With Virtonomy, these products can be developed towards market maturity faster and more cost-efficiently by already simulating necessary tests and studies digitally during the development process. The seven-figure round’s lead investor is Dieter von Holtzbrink Ventures, while both Initiative for Industrial Innovators and Plug and Play also invested in the Munich-based start-up in addition to Bayern Kapital.

Approval processes for medical devices are usually time-consuming and costly. In many cases, they also require ethically objectionable experiments on animals and – at a later stage – risky human trials. Founded in 2019, the German digital health start-up Virtonomy GmbH, based in Munich, has made it its mission to make these approval processes safer, faster and more cost-effective by developing database-driven simulation solutions for this purpose. The idea originated in the automotive industry: Instead of performing tests while driving, a large majority of the required testing for new features and systems is done digitally beforehand, which allows for more tests in a shorter amount of time as well as more iterations of each individual test. Virtonomy applies this concept to medical technology: The company designs virtual, wholly customisable anatomies of human bodies, which producers of medical devices (e.g. implants) can use to test their devices on this virtual patient during all development phases of their technology – from concept to preclinical study to long-term monitoring during widespread use. In this way, Virtonomy reduces the time and costs of developing medical devices while at the same time ensuring that a smaller number of animal and human trials are necessary for the device’s further development.

The funds raised during the seed round are to be invested in the further technological development of the Virtonomy solution, the recruitment of additional staff and in the expansion of the company’s constantly growing database.

“From the very beginning, it was our goal to develop a solution that not only has economic, but also social benefits. The development of new medical technology is still particularly time-consuming and costly, which is why young companies, such as us, who are looking to make a difference in this industry are dependent on strong financial support during their start-up and growth phase. Consequently, we are very happy to have gained a consortium of industry-experienced investors with Dieter von Holtzbrink Ventures, Bayern Kapital, Initiative for Industrial Innovators, and Plug and Play, who will support us in realising our vision”, says Dr. Simon Sonntag, CEO of Virtonomy.

“There is still enormous potential for developing innovative solutions and market leaders in the field of healthcare digitalisation. Digital health start-ups are of interest for venture capital investors, because their products usually offer calculable development times and good scalability. In addition, the approval processes are somewhat easier than for medtech hardware. In this context, Virtonomy’s innovative idea has several advantages: A promising scalable product with the potential of making the development of medical devices faster, safer and more efficient. We see enormous growth potential in this”, says Dr. Geord Ried, Managing Director at Bayern Kapital.

About Virtonomy:
Virtonomy GmbH was founded in late 2019 by Dr. Simon Sonntag (CEO) and Wen-Yang Chu (CTO) in Munich, Germany, and develops a cloud-based SaaS solution, enabling the continued digitalisation of the design and execution phases of clinical studies for medical devices using virtual patients based on a large amount of imaging, physiological and pathological data. The overarching goal is to use data-based vitual patients to end the need for animal and human testing during clinical studies. Virtonomy currently employs a staff of ten and combines expertise from the fields of medical technology, medical image processing, artificial intelligence as well as numerical simulation and visualization using extended reality. www.virtonomy.io

About Bayern Kapital:
Bayern Kapital GmbH, based in Landshut, Germany, was founded as an initiative of the Bavarian government in 1995. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Bavarian LfA Förderbank. As the venture capital organisation of the State of Bavaria, Bayern Kapital provides equity capital financing for the founders of young innovative technology companies in Bavaria. Presently, Bayern Kapital manages twelve investment funds with a total volume of around EUR 500 million. So far, it has invested roughly EUR 350 million in about 290 innovative technology companies in various sectors including life sciences, software & IT, medical technology, materials and new materials, nanotechnology and environmental technology. In this way, more than 8,000 long-term jobs in sustainable companies have been created in Bavaria. For further information, please visit www.bayernkapital.de/en/

Press Contact Bayern Kapital:
IWK Communication Partner
Ira Wülfing / Dominik Neumüller
Ohmstraße 1, DE-80802 München
+49. 89. 2000 30-30
bayernkapital@iwk-cp.com
www.iwk-cp.com