Joining Forces for Women's Health
The EPFL and Groupe Mutuel are joining forces to launch Tech4Eva, a unique acceleration programme in Switzerland for FemTech start-ups.
Lausanne, 8 March. On this International Women's Day, Groupe Mutuel and the EPFL InnovationPark are joining forces to promote technologies improving women's health. The EPFL InnovationPark and Groupe Mutuel have signed a partnership and are launching Tech4Eva, an acceleration programme for start-ups in the FemTech field. This is unprecedented in Switzerland.
Innovation at the service of women
Today, most health-related products, services and technologies are not designed for women. Many areas, however, such as pregnancy, menstruation, fertility or menopause, require specific solutions to women's issues. In Switzerland, but also in Europe, very few companies and start-ups deal with these issues. The EPFL Innovation Park and Groupe Mutuel want to encourage the development of this type of start-ups by supporting them through the EPFL Innovation Park ecosystem and high-level coaching. In particular, specialized workshops, roadshows, investor meetings, business introductions to Corporates will be offered in order to develop new business models and boost the emergence of new solutions at the service of women's health.
Swiss and European start-ups
A selection committee will designate a maximum of 15 start-ups that will be supported for this first season. The objective is to address topics related to women's health, whether to do with prevention, support or treatment. Therefore, Tech4Eva will focus on innovative solutions in areas such as pregnancy, fertility, menstruation, menopause, mental health or family life. The products and services developed by the successful young start-ups will be oriented towards technological solutions such as apps, exchange platforms, diagnostic tools, therapeutic devices or preventive medicine supported by artificial intelligence (AI). The programme will last nine months and will host Swiss and European companies.
EPFL Innovation Park – Groupe Mutuel: a win-win partnership
The selected start-ups will benefit from one of the best health ecosystems in Europe. Thanks to theEPFL Innovation Park’s strong network, they will be able to access international partnerships and investors. They will also be able to work on pilot projects within Groupe Mutuel and access a dynamic market with one of leading health insurers in Switzerland. The EPFL Innovation Park andGroupe Mutuel are pleased to see this partnership take form and are convinced of the importance of new technologies at the service of women.
“Unfortunately, women's issues are all too often overlooked when developing health-related technology solutions. This partnership aims to fill this gap in Switzerland”, said Thomas Boyer, CEO of Groupe Mutuel.
“We look forward to joining forces with Group Mutuel and to help unleash the productivity and creativity of 50% of the population through this acceleration programme for FemTech start-ups. We will contribute our strong business and investor network, as well as our experience of bringing hundreds of high tech start-ups to success”, concluded Jean-Philippe Lallement, Managing Director of the EPFL Innovation Park.