Munich, April 2024
Ventriject’s Seismofit® System determines Cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF), measured as VO2-max. Seismofit® measures the vibrations that arise from the beating heart and transmit to the chest wall. Their groundbreaking innovation earned them the runner-up position in the 15th Healthcare Innovation World Cup 2023, hosted at MEDICA.
Our conversation with the Ventriject team provided invaluable insights. Let’s delve deeper into their path to success.
- HOW DID IT ALL START?
We were founded back in 2018, as a spin-out from a Danish university, Aalborg University. Our founders were looking into the possibilities within the seismocardiography technology, and stumbled a bit into this great opportunity to estimate VO2max in a much simpler and significantly faster way than what you can do today.
The name VentriJect comes from the heart, which is the foundation for what we do. When the heart contracts, it pumps out — ejects — blood from the two lower heart chambers, called ventricles. When the heart relaxes, the ventricles refill with blood. We look at those movements, when we estimate the VO2max. Therefore Ventri from the ventricles, and Ject from the ejection of the blood.
- WHAT ARE THE KEY MILESTONES YOU HAVE REACHED SO FAR?
We went commercially live in the end of 2021, and are currently present in three markets: Denmark, Germany and UK.
We did our Series A funding round in 2021, where we among others got The Export and Investment Fund of Denmark (EIFO) as one of our investors.
In early 2023 we brought in a new CEO, Mikkel Kristiansen, to put speed under our commercial development, and we have seen a really good momentum in our business this year.
- WHAT WERE THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES YOU HAVE FACED?
We have learned that we needed to get much closer to our customers, and understand them and their business better than we already did. Knowing your customers and their needs is key to get success, and we are continuously working on becoming better at this. We can’t recommend enough to new upcoming start-ups to focus heavily on understanding their customers and their customers’ business.
- WHAT IS COMING IN THE NEAR FUTURE?
We will continue on expanding our presence in Denmark, Germany and UK, as we still have a great potential in all three market. We will also also slowly starting some distributor markets – especially after seeing the strong interest in us at the MEDICA trade show. A little further out in the future is entry into the US market.
5. DESCRIBE YOUR JOURNEY IN THE INNOVATION WORLD CUP®
It was really a great experience to be part of the Innovation World Cup®!
The fact that we only had the opportunity to provide a very short pitch on stage was frightening, but also forced us to really focus and make our story super concrete, to-the-point, and easy to understand. We were really impressed by the other businesses in the competition – a tough competition!
- YOUR THREE TIPS FOR UP-COMING STARTUPS
1. Don’t overcommunicate. Make it simple and concise.
2. Remember the why – why are we doing what we are doing.
3. What differentiates you from your competition. Explain why you are better than the rest.
We appreciate the compelling insights you have provided, and we eagerly anticipate witnessing your future endeavors and the remarkable progress you will make!
Visit Ventriject and explore their Seismofit solution that revolutionises how we measure VO2max.
Submit your solution and join the 16th Healthcare Innovation World Cup. The next generation of smart health devices, medical wearables, digital biomarkers, electroceuticals, intelligent patches, and more. HealthTech and MedTech innovators worldwide are invited to take part in free of charge.
