Venture kick winner turns smartphones into biosensors

Qloudlab is the inventor and patent holder of the world’s first touchscreen-based biosensor. The sensor technology transforms a smartphone into a medical device that can perform a variety of blood tests with the aid of a special app and a biofilm stuck onto the touchscreen. No plugins or additional hardware are required.

The patented Qloudlab technology is based on the capacitive touchscreen technology embedded in most Smartphones (Apple iPhone, Galaxy S, Sony Xperia, Nokia Lumia, Google Nexus, etc.). These sensors, normally used for finger tracking, are able to detect an extremely low variation of charges above the surface, which is suitable for bio-sensing detection of molecules at the interface.

The innovation is at the convergence of Smartphones, Healthcare, and Cloud solutions. The development is supported by EPFL (Pr. Philippe Renaud, Microsystems Laboratory) and by a major industrial player in cutting-edge touchscreen solutions for consumer, industrial and automotive products. Pilot studies are planned for 2014; market entry is to follow in 2016.

The company has won CHF 130’000 from venture kick. Qloudlab CEO Arthur Queval comments: “We are proud to be one of the venture kick winners. Thanks to this financial kick we can accelerate our growth and prepare the market entry. "

Venture kick helps potential entrepreneurs by giving them the opportunity to win up to CHF 130,000 in pre-seed capital. Moreover, startups can also use the know-how of experienced experts and entrepreneurs and be granted access to a national network of investors. Venture kick provides a unique and leading approach with a proven track-record of creating new high-tech startups in Switzerland. Venture kick is a philantropic initiative of a private consortium.