THEME FROM IDEA TO INDUSTRY
FROM ENGINEER OF THE YEAR TO BANKRUPTCY She was named Engineer of the Year in 2019. A few months later, her company went bust. Growing up in Serbia, Maja Rudinac had learned as a child that you have to seize the day. Motivated by this awareness, she did everything possible for her innovation, the Lea care robot. All lights were on green, everyone loved the product and still, the innovation didn’t make it. Annet Veenstra
T
he summer of 1990. It was a sunny, carefree time and Maja Rudinac was a happy child. Her parents had made plans for that summer: the family was going on a long holiday. They decided to postpone the trip for a few months so that Maja, who would be a bit older by then, could appreciate it more. They would also be able to take additional time off from work. A few months later, civil war broke out in Yugoslavia. “We never went on that holiday,” Maja recalls. “What that taught me, as a child, was this: if you see an opportunity today, grab it with both hands. You don’t know what will happen tomorrow. Today is the day you can make a difference in the world.” Maja completes her studies in Serbia – electrical engineering with a specialization in AI – and is subsequently invited to do her PhD at Delft University of Technology’s Robotics Institute under the supervision of professor Pieter Jonker. In 2015, together with Jonker, she launches the Robot Care Systems startup and develops the Lea care robot. Lea helps people with Parkinson’s disease to walk again, to be able to dance and to enjoy life. The robot senses when the patient experiences a freeze when walking, brakes when the patient leans too far forward, keeps appointments and guides the user through physiotherapy. 34
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In 2016, a consortium of investors – including Innovationquarter, Rabobank The Hague, CZ healthcare insurer and Lobeco – invests 5 million euros in the innovation. In 2019, Maja receives the Prince Friso Engineers Award from Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands. A few months later, the startup is declared bankrupt.
Starting up in the healthcare sector
What went through your mind when you knew your company was not going to make it? “We were devastated. Heartbroken. In January 2019, we were at Amazon’s stand at the CES innovation show and in March, we received the Engineer of the Year award. Everybody loved our product – patients, physiotherapists,
“The healthcare sector is an incredibly difficult market to tap into as a startup,” explains Lonneke Baas, a business developer at Innovationquarter. “Up to the day you start making money, as Maja says, you’ll have worked on your product for eight to twelve years. It’s easier for large companies to develop a new product alongside their existing line as they’re already making money or have a basic product. But a startup launching a new product still has to prove everything: effectiveness, safety, market validity and intended use. As a startup, it’s incredibly difficult to retain investors for long R&D phases and trial periods. The market is dominated by a small number of major players. You often see that startups eventually enter into a strategic partnership with a bigger party.” Baas continues: “We know that the healthcare sector is risk averse. And for good reason, of course. The underlying principle is that we want to keep healthcare accessible and affordable for everyone. To facilitate technological innovations in healthcare, we, as business developers at Innovationquarter, are working on stimulating change in this sector so that innovation becomes easier and part of the culture. To achieve this, healthcare must become more outcome based; that is, it must focus on the best outcome for the patient, take joint decisions and adopt a funding approach aimed at fewer people ill or more people better. Currently, you still get paid per illness or treatment.” “To make outcome-based healthcare possible, you have to innovate the entire chain. All stakeholders must take part in this conversation – from insurer to municipality, from general practitioner to patient. We stimulate new collaborations and business models through our Healthtech program. Healthcare technology developers can test the applicability of their technology through the program. Funding is also available for this. Projects that wish to qualify for Healthtech must have at least three types of chain partners: a tech partner, a healthcare partner and a field lab. For Innovationquarter, the latter is important as it will allow us to make joint use of the lessons learned as a region.”
