June 3rd, 2016

OKM Capital expands its portfolio with a recent investment into Common Sensing, co-investing alongside Qualcomm Ventures, Sanofi-Genzyme BioVentures, Waterline Ventures and other supporters of the company's Gocap patented sensor-enabled technology designed to transform diabetes care. Gocap is the smart cap for insulin pens. It’s small enough to fit in a pocket, and has a USB-rechargeable battery that lasts a week. Gocap automatically generates an insulin logbook that can be wirelessly shared with care providers and family. For further info visit:

http://common-sensing.com

June 30th, 2015

Mobile ODT, an Israeli/US startup took 1st place at the MedTech competition at the Wilson Sonsini Medical Device Conference in San Francisco. Its competitors included 16 other semi-finalists with technologies ranging from Smart (Connected) Catheter for Neurogenic Bladder to software that analyzes health "Big Data" and predicts potentially catastrophic illnesses. For further info visit:

http://medtechinnovator.com

May 6th, 2015

OKM Capital’s Karsten Bahlman was judging at MIT 100K competition and had a chance to evaluate ideas presented. Given the depth of MIT’s research, it is no surprise that a quarter of finalists are in HealthCare space, the primary focus of OKM's activities. In Karsten’s words, this year’s 100k semi-finalist judging session was even more captivating than last year’s. One constantly has to be reminded of being in a university competition when almost a dozen teams present and not in the offices of a VC firm where you deal with one company at a time. It took extensive deliberation in picking the teams that can proceed to the MIT 100K finals. This event will be held on May 13th.

In the HealthCare space, this year’s competition attracted such startups as Emerald, which focuses on analysis of mobility and wellness of elderly population; PanTher Therapeutics which tries to solve the problem of treatment of locally advancing solid inoperable tumors; Dynometrics, has developed a wearable lactic acid meter. The company intends to market it to endurance athletes. The technology shall help athletes to perform at their maximum level, just 'before hitting the wall' 

And finally one of the winners: Suono Bio. This company has developed a device that dramatically increases the absorption of drugs in the GI tract by administering it in conjunction with ultrasound. The company targets initially Inflammatory Bowl Disease (IBD) where generic drugs are available. It is a platform technology, and, if it works, it is applicable to a delivery of large molecules of a drug, which otherwise have to be injected.

 For further info on MIT 100K please visit: http://mit100k.org/

May 5, 2015

Mobile ODT, OKM Capital’s portfolio company, recently closed its next financing round and is ready to launch innovative medical devices in more markets, like West Africa and India. Meanwhile, CEO Ariel Beery will give a talk at Health 2.0 conference in Barcelona on how to effectively bring digital health tools into the world's emerging markets.

For further info:

http://www.mobileodt.com

http://www.health2con.com/events/speaker/ariel-beery/

February 3rd, 2015

We are excited about joining the latest BOLT $25M fund as investors. BOLT is a unique early stage investor, accelerator, incubator and provider of engineering services to startups operating in the connected device space. For OKM Capital it is a great opportunity to co-invest into exceptional health-tech companies at the intersection of hardware and software, further expand and diversify our portfolio by joining forces with highly skilled engineers and talented entrepreneurs. Among strategic investors in BOLT fund are such well-known global leaders in technology as Cisco, Autodesk, Logitech.

All exciting news @ www.bolt.io

January 13th, 2015

OKM Capital portfolio company Mobile ODT is on track with its plans of commercial launch of multimodal imaging technology devices. Last year BIRD foundation chose Mobile ODT as one of the four healthcare sector companies to invest in for its outstanding achievements in cancer diagnostic. The BIRD Foundation promotes collaboration between U.S. and Israeli companies in various technological fields for the purpose of joint product development. In addition to providing conditional grants of up to $1 million for approved projects, the Foundation assists by working with companies to identify potential strategic partners and facilitate introductions. For further info:

https://www.mobileodt.com/news

January 12th, 2015

OKM Capital portfolio company iDoc24 won a prestigious Mobileys award for its FirstDerm app, that provides both consumers and businesses a faster, more convenient means to receive professional opinion on skin care. The Mobileys is an annual national competition that honors entrepreneurs who inspire and make a difference through mobile innovation. For further info please visit:

http://themobileys.com

October 08, 2014

OKM Capital’s advisor, Karsten Bahlmann, thinks that the groundbreaking work of this year’s Nobel Prize winners in Chemistry will help to address mounting challenges in science and healthcare.

Karsten’s PhD advisor, Stefan W. Hell, is a recipient of this year’s Nobel Prize. As the Nobel committee admitted, with the help of nanoscopy scientists “can track proteins involved in Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s diseases as they aggregate”.

After his PhD, Karsten joined the Department of Biological Engineering at MIT as a post-doctoral researcher from where he co-founded TissueVision. The company provides instrumentation for fully automated whole organ imaging with sub-cellular resolution and molecular specificity. Their work aids discoveries in areas such as cancer, neuroscience and developmental biology. At OKM he looks after investment opportunities that can change the way we diagnose and treat diseases.

The recognition of super resolution microscopy by the Nobel committee reflects the importance new techniques play in understanding and finding disease cures. Specifically innovations in imaging accelerate scientific discovery on a broad basis and help us ‘see’ into the mysteries of diseases such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s and other.

For further info on groundbreaking research in Chemistry that led to the discovery of nanoscopy please visit: http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2014/popular-chemistryprize2014.pdf

September 22, 2014

Digital health is gaining more and more attention from investors, entrepreneurs and healthcare providers. But can we quickly educate consumers and physicians? While many innovations focus on cost control and big data analytics, it’s not obvious to what extent and how quickly the current “fee-for-services” model will be replaced with “fee-for-outcomes” based one. As with almost all innovations, disruption starts from “below”: consumers need cheaper solutions; so those who were lacking ability to get professional care now are in the market. Digital healthcare: telemedicine, online diagnostics and various types of sensors connected to our cellphones provide cheap and quick solutions for treatment of simple problems. Physicians thus should move up the value chain and focus on more complicated diseases. But as one participant in the conference said: “it’s hard to innovate in classical healthcare today”. The system is still resilient to changes: complicated legal requirements and standards in different US states and worldwide, multiple players, like government agencies, physicians, provider networks and finally patients needs to be educated and adopt to new reality. But times are changing and that’s why digital health is enormous still largely untapped opportunity for all stakeholders: consumers, physicians, entrepreneurs and investors. IT solutions are coming to healthcare, it won’t take long until gadgets with sensors and virtual doctors will constantly monitor our body, diagnose illnesses and provide us with treatment recommendations. Doctors will be there for complicated cases; they will share practices and use big data analytics, including newest innovations in genomics, to focus on disease prevention. And as CEO of Kaiser Permanente Bernard Tyson put it straight: “majority of the money today is spent on just two short moments: birth and death. We need to focus on what happens in between to make people live better lives”. At OKM we believe that this is the future of healthcare: preventive rather than reactive, mass and cheap rather than exclusive and expensive.

Further info: http://www.health2con.com

July 1, 2014

Mass Challenge is the biggest startup accelerator in Boston area and one of the largest in the World. Each year hundreds of companies from all around the globe apply for an annual accelerator program and startup competition. The key strength of Mass Challenge is ability to provide entrepreneurs with high-quality, personalized mentorship and by connecting them to potential team members, advisors, customers and sponsors. Katerina’s experience in corporate VC and telecommunication industry will not only help those entrepreneurs seeking advise but also further strengthens OKM Capital relationships with Boston entrepreneurial community.

Further info: http://masschallenge.org

January 17, 2014

Every year thousands of healthcare industry professionals from all around the world gather together in San Francisco for an annual JP Morgan and various biotech conferences. This year was marked by a particular event: finally Obamacare was launched. The Affordable Care Act created many business opportunities itself: this was reflected through the conference and its program. Many companies talked about big data analytics, digital health, and new evolving models of health care delivery. The conference also featured a panel on digital health. What are the key takeaways for digital health and medical device companies?

1. Anticipating big opportunities, entrepreneurs were using momentum to offer their ideas on how to reinvent the medicine: make it cheaper and more affordable. Investors were on board too: more than $2bn invested in digital healthcare in 2013. And this trend has continued over the past 2 years.

2. The shift of reimbursement system from procedure-based to value based fuels faster adoption of cost-efficient and value-improving technologies. As one of the panelists put it, we live in the era of Accelerated Darwinism: caregivers who perform well get additional dollars as reimbursement, less efficient competitors become extinct.

3. High healthcare costs, ageing population increase pressure on care providers. It’s around $765 billion that is annually wasted in the healthcare system.

4. You are not innovating in healthcare, if you don’t focus on cost and quality. Technology-enabled solutions and outsourced services are key enablers.

5. Investors face big challenge to find true big transformative and disruptive ideas among hundreds of start-ups doing essentially the same thing. The good news for the society is that the growing investments in digital healthcare, both successful and failed, will accelerate the shift to value-based healthcare with new services and solutions. The money invested will definitely have a positive impact on society’s health and wellness.