Mint Solutions, a hardware startup that’s developed a scanning device designed to help hospital nurses ensure each patient gets the right medicine and the correct dosage, has pulled in a €4.425 million ($6 million) Series A funding round.
The funding was led by European investment firm Life Sciences Partners (LSP) and co-led by Seventure Partners, with participation from existing investors.
Mint Solutions’ pill verification device, called MedEye, uses computer vision to identify tablets placed in a drawer on the front of the unit — based on characteristics like the size, shape, colour and markings of individual pills (medicines are required by law to be distinct).
The MedEye system is designed to work with existing hospital workflow and IT infrastructure — so, for instance, the nurse accesses the patient’s medical information via a wristband barcode system and is then able to cross-reference their prescription information with the dosage they are about to receive, getting the latter info by scanning their medicine with MedEye.
The aim is to improve medical safety in hospital by preventing errors whereby patients are given the wrong medicine or the wrong dosage of the right medicine — either of which can obviously have extremely serious consequences.
It also aims to streamline the pill-dispensing process for nurses, with no need for individual tablets to carry a barcode or be scanned one by one.
If, in the unlikely event a medicine is not yet in Mint Solutions’ MedEye database (they claim their database has comprehensive coverage of medicines) — perhaps if it is very new — the system will specify that it does not recognise the pill and the nurse can manually add the medicine’s details to the system, which is self-learning so will be able to recognise the medicine thereafter.
The MedEye device has been deployed in hospitals in the Netherlands so far, with plans for further rollouts there and also in the UK and Germany — fueled by the new funding round.
Commenting on the funding in a statement, Anne Portwich, Partner at LSP, said: “Mint Solutions provides a comprehensive system to the huge problem of medication safety in the hospital setting. Besides being able to cover 100% of all medication, the MedEye system is also very easy to implement and use, removing many of the hurdles that alternatives have faced.”
As part of the investment, Portwich and Seventure Venture Partner Eric de La Fortelle are joining Mint Solutions’ board. The startup is also moving its HQ to the Netherlands.
Mint Solutions was a participant in the Netherlands-based, hardware-focused accelerator Startupbootcamp High Tech XL, which launched its inaugural program last August. The accelerator is now open for applications for its second cohort, due to commence in November.
Mint Solutions’ funding is a record raise for Startupbootcamp, according to Bart Lugard, head of team selection at HighTech XL program.