Reading based Occuity wins Chinese innovation award

Published by

Nicky Godding

Reading Healthcare company Occuity has been awarded a “Foreigner Project of the Competition” prize at the 2020 Hangzhou Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition.

The competition, which has been running annually since 2015, looks to identify and attract global high-tech innovative talent and entrepreneurial projects which resonate with the entrepreneurial spirit of the city of Hangzhou. Occuity was invited to present at the competition by Zemu Venture Capital and 500 Startups.

At each stage of the competition Occuity’s presentation generated in depth technical and commercial discussions. Some one hundred and twenty million people in China are estimated to be suffering from diabetes with a further one third of the population having pre-diabetes conditions.

Occuity’s products use patented optical technologies to identify changes in the eye which can be used for the early detection and monitoring of a number of chronic diseases. This fitted well with China’s desire to improve the quality of healthcare for its citizens through the adoption of innovative world-leading solutions. The Occuity offering was particularly welcomed as it aims to provide a cost-effective route to early identification and monitoring of diabetes.

Occuity CEO Dr Dan Daly said: “We are delighted to receive the prize in the “Foreigner Project of the Competition” category. China is an outstanding market for our products, particularly in the diabetes space.” He added: “Occuity has global plans and this validation from one of the world’s largest diabetes markets shows how a UK company can address a problem that affects the whole world.”

Nicky Godding

Nicky Godding is editor of The Business Magazine. Before her journalism career, she worked mainly in public relations moving into writing when she was invited to launch Retail Watch, a publication covering retail and real estate across Europe. After some years of constant travelling, she tucked away her passport and concentrated on business writing, co-founding a successful regional business magazine. She has interviewed some of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs who have built multi-million-pound businesses and reported on many science and technology firsts. She reports on the region’s thriving business economy from start-ups, family businesses and multi-million-pound corporations, to the professionals that support their growth and the institutions that educate the next generation of business leaders.