FIT grants Tech Seed loans to Dexterous Endoscopes and Precisia Care

The Foundation for Innovation and Technology has awarded CHF 100,000 Tech Seed loans to Dexterous Endoscopes, for an endoscope that switches from flexible to rigid during a procedure, and to Precisia Care, for its hospital data analytics platform.

The Foundation for Innovation and Technology (FIT) has granted Tech Seed loans of CHF 100,000 each to two start-ups from the canton of Vaud: Dexterous Endoscopes and Precisia Care.

Dexterous Endoscopes is developing an endoscope that combines the properties of the two instrument types currently available in minimally invasive surgery. Rigid endoscopes are precise but cannot reach hard-to-access areas, while flexible models manoeuvre anywhere but bend as soon as force is required, obliging surgeons to change instruments during an operation or abandon the minimally invasive approach. The company’s device moves flexibly to reach the target area, then stiffens at the touch of a button to allow precise surgery. Having raised more than CHF 1 million and completed seven series of preclinical trials on a functional prototype, the start-up will use the loan to continue those trials and prepare the regulatory and industrialization stages.

Precisia Care has developed a platform that analyzes hospital data to generate predictive insights, including assessments of care teams’ workload, patient safety alerts and support for organizing care. A significant share of patient information in hospitals remains difficult to use, scattered across multiple systems and recorded as free-text notes written by staff. Designed by specialists from the hospital and healthcare sectors, the platform is already in use at leading Swiss hospitals. The loan completes the budget required to validate the pilot roll-outs under way at the Ensemble hospitalier de la Côte and the Réseau hospitalier neuchâtelois.