Malaria testing kit wins Oxford University Innovation startup incubator
Last month, Oxford University Innovation welcomed 30 students across nine teams onto its month-long startup incubator.
Participants took part in an intensive entrepreneurship training programme, which included workshops on how to develop their ideas, identify their market and pitch their businesses, as well as guest talks from seasoned entrepreneurs, industry specialists and investors.
The programme culminated in a pitch event on 25 July, where each team presented their business plans to an audience and expert panel.
The winning team was Maritest, who are using AI to end malaria with a non-invasive diagnostic device.
Inspired by founder Hakim Kakooza’s own experience of the disease, the startup is aiming to solve the problem of a lack of access to accurate, timely malaria diagnosis in sub-Saharan Africa.
The team – completed by Tinashe Ngwenya and Matthew Buckley – have developed a hand-held, AI-powered bloodless device that can be used to diagnose malaria quickly and cheaply.
“StEP equipped us with the practical tools to assess Maritest’s market opportunity and business viability,” they said.
“The programme also enabled us to connect with specialist mentors from OUI, and we’re grateful for their guidance to our team during the four weeks.”
The OUI incubator team added that they’re looking forward to continuing to support Maritest in growing their business.
Cath Spence, incubator manager, added: “Malaria is a killer, claiming the lives of over 600,000 a year.
“It’s aided and abetted by poverty and the challenges of access to timely diagnosis rural areas.
“Maritest presented an affordable, reusable solution which can be deployed to the remotest stations.
“The judges were impressed by the team and the clear potential of the product to make a global impact.
“We’re delighted to have the opportunity to support them on the next stage of their journey.”
The two runner-up teams also impressed the judges – Oxpatch, with their solution to speeding up tissue repair in rotator cuff injuries, and BioFragment, with their approach to manufacturing biological fragments for more sustainable drug discovery.
