Grundium Receives Euro 1.95 Million Grant from European Innovation Council
Helsinki, Finland - Grundium OY, the Finland-based expert in digital imaging technologies received a near 2 Meur grant from the EU Horizon 2020 SME Instrument program. The funding enables Grundium to finalize the development, acquire certifications, conduct pilots with leading European hospitals and pathology labs and begin the commercialization phase of the Grundium Ocus, the world´s first portable and low-cost digital scanning microscope for clinical and research use.
A total of 1280 companies from 38 countries applied for the European Innovation Council grant. 135 were selected to pitch their proposals in Brussels, out of those 65 were approved for funding.
“Being selected as one of the most innovative businesses in Europe is above all an incredible recognition for our team and proves that we are on the right track”, says Mika Kuisma, CEO of Grundium.
Digital pathology is on the verge of major breakthrough and is regarded as one of the key enabling technologies in future medicine forming a €5 billion market by 2023. However, the digital pathology adoption is still far from its full potential as ~80% of potential end-users (hospitals, labs, researchers) still have no access to it due to the high cost of current digital scanning tools.
The Grundium Ocus is the world´s first professional grade portable microscope slide scanner at a price up to 90% lower than currently available equipment.
With the pilots underway in Europe and about to start in the United States Grundium is ready to move in to the commercialization phase. By 2022, Grundium is projected to be the leader in desktop scanning microscopes, enabling a faster and more widespread transition to digital pathology era globally.
Grundium’s vision is to bring digital microscope scanners to every pathologist’s desk. The Ocus’ performance-to-price ratio and compact enough size to grab it and take it where ever the work needs to get done set it apart from current technologies and competition. The Ocus enables professionals to scan and digitize high-resolution images immediately from operation rooms, any work station, and even remote locations, thus enabling faster analysis and diagnoses.
Related links: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/217040/factsheet/en