2023 STARTUP WORLD CUP
CHAMPION WINNER
Brief
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Aillis is a Tokyo-based healthcare technology company focused on developing AI-powered diagnostic tools aimed at improving how respiratory illnesses are detected and managed. The company’s core technology uses artificial intelligence to analyze medical data, specifically for respiratory disease diagnostics. Aillis’s flagship product, an AI-driven tool for detecting early signs of influenza and other respiratory conditions. Their solutions are designed to be integrated seamlessly into existing healthcare infrastructure, from primary care clinics to hospitals, allowing for faster and more accurate diagnosis of respiratory conditions. By reducing the time needed for clinical decision-making, Aillis enhances the capacity of healthcare providers to manage infectious diseases more effectively.
Aillis has raised over $50M from prominent investors, including both Japanese venture capital firms and international healthcare-focused investors. Their investors include Aozora Corporate Investment, Pegasus Tech Ventures, Asahi Group Holdings, Capital Medical Ventures, HiJoJo Partners, and JSR Active Innovation Fund. The company completed its initial seed round in 2019 and went on to secure Series A funding of $20M in 2021. Aillis's latest fundraising, a Series B round of $30M in 2023, will be used to accelerate product development, expand international market reach, and seek regulatory approvals across multiple regions.
Aillis was co-founded by a multidisciplinary team that brings together expertise in both healthcare and artificial intelligence. The CEO has a background in medical research and has worked extensively in public health initiatives in Japan. The CTO is an expert in AI and machine learning, previously worked at top tech companies in Japan and leading AI projects for healthcare applications. The leadership team also includes a diverse group of engineers, medical advisors, and public health experts who are dedicated to improving global respiratory health through the use of cutting-edge technology.
Aillis is poised for significant expansion in the coming years, with plans to broaden its reach both domestically and internationally. The company aims to secure regulatory approvals in key markets such as the U.S. and Europe, enabling the deployment of its AI-powered diagnostic tools in a wide range of healthcare settings. Aillis is also focused on expanding its product line beyond respiratory diagnostics to include AI solutions for other infectious diseases, capitalizing on its core technology.
Additionally, the company plans to forge strategic partnerships with global healthcare institutions and government agencies to enhance early detection and disease prevention efforts on a larger scale. With the growing demand for AI-driven healthcare solutions, Aillis is well-positioned to become a leader in the global diagnostics market, particularly as the world continues to prioritize rapid and accurate responses to public health challenges.
2022 STARTUP WORLD CUP
CHAMPION WINNER
Brief
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SRTX specializes in creating ultra-durable textile products, particularly in the outerwear, swimwear, and tights categories. SRTX has redefined the concept of durability in apparel by developing a proprietary knit technology that has positioned them as leaders in the market. Their Rip-Resist tights, which are up to ten times more durable than traditional tights, have quickly gained popularity for their long lasting quality. Their full product line includes strong fibers used to create tights, water repelling materials used for outerwear, rain jackets, sports equipment, & more, and a platform to manage textile factories.
SRTX has raised over $120M from investors, including Pegasus Tech Ventures, ArcTern Ventures, Founders Fund, and more. Hailing from Canada, SRTX quickly took off from the 2018 Y Combinator winter batch to revolutionize the textiles industry.
Founded by an experienced entrepreneur with a notable e-commerce exit, SRTX has grown rapidly, expanding its product range and scaling its operations significantly. By 2024, SRTX plans to further expand its capabilities with the addition of a new 300,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Montreal, which will enable them to produce their own ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) fibers and greatly scale their production capacity.
What sets SRTX apart is its commitment to vertical integration, innovative materials, and advanced manufacturing processes. The company’s new Montreal HQ will enable SRTX to produce fibers in-house. This will not only reduce costs but also position SRTX as a leader in producing waterproof, breathable textiles without harmful chemicals.
SRTX’s commitment to sustainability is evident in every aspect of their operations. By creating products that are designed to last, they significantly reduce the environmental impact associated with disposable fashion. Their tights, for example, offer 10 times the wear of traditional options, potentially saving millions of pairs from ending up in landfills and reducing the release of microplastics by 20%.
As SRTX continues to grow and innovate, they remain committed to their mission of powering a better future for textiles. With a strong foundation of technological innovation, sustainability, and vertical integration, SRTX is poised to lead the way in rehabilitating the fashion industry for years to come.
2019 STARTUP WORLD CUP
CHAMPION WINNER
Brief
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Founded in 2015, Abivin provides an AI-powered optimization platform for companies in the APAC region. With proprietary algorithms that can automatically address ingrained logistics mathematical problems, Abivin optimizes the enterprise value chains by helping companies save 10-30% logistics costs, increase 30% delivery capacity, improve the end-to-end supply chain visibility, and reduce carbon footprints. https://www.abivin.com/
Abivin won 2019 #StartupWorldCup Grand Finale Champion and has raised over US$1.7million in seed and pre-series A financing from Pegasus Tech Ventures, Access Ventures and others. As a Vietnam-born logitech startup, Abivin is blazing a path in comprehensively integrating four main capabilities: transportation management, intelligence dashboard, 3D loading optimization, and route optimization.
The key components that set Abivin apart from other competitors are its proprietary optimization algorithms and technical capability in big data analytics, AI, and machine learning, which can assist people in making complex planning decisions automatically while satisfying more than 30 constraints.
Founded by an M.A. in computer science at the University of Cambridge and a former engineer at Google, Abivin has successfully expanded across six countries, including Vietnam, Indonesia, Myanmar, Singapore, the Philippines, and Japan. The company has an impressive client portfolio with the top 10 biggest corporations in Vietnam and in the world, achieving the CAGR of annual recurring revenue at 3x over the 2016-2021 period.
Many companies are running logistics operations manually without the support of advanced computing power. This causes long-hour route planning, ineffective on-field work or low-quality customer services and a lack of visibility over the supply chain.
Since the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic, these problems have hit the logistics sector hard and exposed how much companies can make or break their future successes.
“If an optimal data-driven route is available and drivers, salesmen, warehousemen are enabled to update working progress, communicate, and receive supervisors’ tasks, logistics services could gain more capabilities, save up working time and operating costs,” said Pham Nam Long, Abivin’s CEO and founder. “Our vision is to cut the logistics cost of Southeast Asian countries down to below 10% of their GDPs, putting them on par with those of North America and Europe’s countries.”
Abivin recently secured the top 4 winning startups of Microsoft’s inaugural Emerge X Competition in the Asia Pacific region in 2020 and became the winner of the ASEAN Entrepreneur Award 2020 hosted by ASEAN-Korea Centre and Maeil Business Newspaper.
2018 STARTUP WORLD CUP
CHAMPION WINNER
Brief
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Leuko is a startup spun out from MIT and the Madrid M+Vision Consortium. They are developing a platform technology to noninvasively measure blood parameters. The scalable PointCheck™ solution combines optics and AI to make blood testing easier, faster, more accessible, and cost-effective than the state-of-the art solutions. In 2017, Carlos Castro-Gonzalez, Aurelien Bourquard, Ian Butterworth and Alvaro Sanchez-Ferro co-founded Leuko. Together they co-invented Leuko’s proprietary PointCheck™ technology for non-invasive white blood cell monitoring. https://leuko.io/
Leuko Labs was our 2018 #StartupWorldCup Grand Finale Champion who have announced yesterday that they have raised $1.8 million seed round. Leuko Labs is a MIT-born technology startup developing the first non-invasive white blood cell monitoring device.
They raised $1.8 million in seed financing from Pegasus Tech Ventures, Good Growth Capital, Nina Capital, and others.
Founded by four MIT scientists and entrepreneurs, two of whom are also alumni of Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Leuko is developing PointCheck™, the company’s proprietary device to measure white blood cell levels non-invasively, which can enable improved clinical outcomes and reduced costs for immunosuppressed patients. The device takes its measurements from a patient’s finger without drawing blood.
Patients need a way to monitor how they are reacting to treatments, daily and non-invasively from the comfort of their homes, and physicians need this insight to more precisely adjust treatments. If physicians are alerted when a patient's white blood cells drop to dangerously-low levels, preventive treatment could be deployed to avoid life-threatening infections, improve clinical outcomes, and reduce hospitalization costs. “Our vision is that patients will have a PointCheck™ portable device that they can take home to do just that,” said Carlos Castro-Gonzalez, Leuko’s CEO and co-founder. "The new investment supports ongoing development and clinical studies of our platform technology, to ultimately turn this vision into reality.”
Good Growth Capital (GGC), a venture capital fund based between Boston and Charleston and focused on early stage technology companies, has led the investment.
“In the short time since GGC’s first investment, Leuko has made significant progress in developing a platform that is demonstrably faster, more efficient and more scalable than traditional methods,” said Amy Salzhauer, managing partner at GGC. “We’re excited to invest in Leuko and help accelerate their path to market as they aim to transform the care of immunosuppressed patients by dramatically improving the efficiency of cell testing.”
2017 STARTUP WORLD CUP
CHAMPION WINNER
Brief
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Founded in 2013 in Japan, UniFa develops an IoT solution for tracking kindergarteners' physical and mental growth
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Launched new service "Look-me nap check," which offers a simple button from the sensor to support safety and security of children by monitoring children's sleep
Investments
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$10M funding after they became the Startup World Cup 2017 champion
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8 famous Japanese venture funds and corporations
GROWTH SINCE WINNING SWC 2017
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6x increase in sales
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3x increase in customer
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2x increase in employees
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Partnership with Toppan Printing, Froebel-Kan, and more
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Expected IPO in 2020