ObsteCare's first prototype materialized with STING
Johan Itzel, CEO and founder of ObsteCare, sees the financing the company has recieved through STING as a necessary precondition of starting the company. ObsteCare was also the first company to receive venture capital from STING Capital.
ObsteCare will soon finish a large clinical study showing how their delivery surveillance system can dramatically shorten long and complicated deliveries. The Söder Hospital in Stockholm and Karlstads hospital are helping to test the technology that may ease the delivery of more than 18,000 Swedish births a year.
− After the studies we will be able to prepare the system for a larger scale of production that can get started early next year, Johan Itzel tells. The market for the system is global and within five years they expect to have customers on the European and North American market.
ObsteCares delivery surveillance system builds on research conducted at the female clinic at the Söder Hospital that gave co-founder Eva Wiberg-Itzel a doctorate. When the founders contacted STING in 2005 the goal was to build a prototype of the system.
− Becoming a part of STING enabled us to build up the company professionally. Without the financing we got from STING Capital we would not have been able to build the first prototype, says Per Söderberg, responsible for application development and also a founder.
ObsteCare has gone through both STING′s Business Lab and Business Accelerator and notes that the support from the business coach has complemented their own knowledge.
− The coaching STING has provided us with has matched our needs like a glove. We have been able to complement each other's knowledge about technology and industry perfectly, says Johan Itzel. Taking the step to STING′s Go Global is an obvious choice in light of the international market ObsteCare hopes to break into.
The way to the international market passes through further financing, partially to prepare the product for mass production, but also to hire more employees.
− To receive venture capital from STING Capital as been very valuable and accessing their network has saved us a lot of time and energy, says Johan Itzel.
