Sara Toledano Sáez and Javier García López are two engineers who wanted to develop their own technology, but did not know which way to go. They found their reason for being an entrepreneur in the covid. “When the pandemic began, it coincided that we had both left our jobs and we decided to help diagnose the covid through an x-ray,” explains Toledano. They contacted different health professionals to find out how they could help them and signed biomedical doctor Júlia Rodríguez Comas, with whom Toledano played soccer, as a partner. Together they founded Sycai Medical in August 2020.
As a result of conversations with medical professionals, the entrepreneurs have directed their efforts to the early and non-invasive diagnosis of pancreatic cancer through medical images. Specifically, the technology developed analyzes pancreatic cystic lesions and, based on the analysis of similar cases, predicts the probability that they will end up becoming malignant tumors. The founders do not want to limit themselves to pancreatic cancer, which is the fourth deadliest in Europe, but rather their intention is to "expand their solution to the liver and kidney, with the idea of being able to cover the entire area of the abdomen," he says. Toledo.
With headquarters in the Barcelona Activa facilities and a team of ten people, Sycai Medical has raised 1.78 million euros: one million euros in grants and projects and 780,000 euros in an investment round led by Ship2B Ventures and which It also had the participation of BStartup from Banco Sabadell. The startup has been incubated by Barcelona Activa and has participated in various business acceleration programs, including Conector Startup Accelerator, Emprende inHealth (UnLimited Spain and Lilly Spain) or the Ship2B Foundation. They have recently been selected to participate in the first edition of the Scale the Impact acceleration program (Social Nest Foundation and Danone).
The startup's technology is pending approval by the corresponding European authorities before it can begin to be commercialized. Meanwhile, entrepreneurs have already started making contacts in the United States. Sycai Medical considers two main ways of entering the market: direct sales to clinics and hospitals, as well as the license of its technology in PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication System) devices, an objective for which they already have pre-agreements with various companies.
