IDUN Technologies wins pilot project with Takeda

IDUN Technologies is one of two winners of the Takeda Digital Health Innovation Challenge. The Japanese pharmaceutical giant uses this competition to search for the best digital health projects in Europe. The prize will enable the spin-off from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich to collaborate with Takeda, one of the top ten largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, in a fully funded pilot project. 

As a winner of this challenge, IDUN will work on a solution for patients with sleeping disorders with the aid of its earphone-like sensors. According to a statement from the CEO of IDUN, Simon Bachmann, the company’s vision is to create an Internet of Humans: “A world where our minds and bodies are connected to the digital world. We want to create empathic technology that reacts to your cognitive and emotional needs.” He adds that by collaborating with Takeda, IDUN can introduce its sensor and artificial intelligence technologies into the development and applications of digital therapeutics.

Bachmann told Venture Lab that his company sees the Internet of Humans as “the next stage of the Internet of Things, by bringing the human into the equation of connectivity and placing the user in the center.” IDUN’s closed-loop mechanism enables a neurological state to be achieved by monitoring measurements of signals within the brain (with an EEG) and using this information to adapt the functionality of a device so that it changes and improves the neurological state.

This means that IDUN’s technology can for example recognize increased stress or mental fatigue through neurological signals and “potentially create a smart plug-in for your calendar to book breaks and micro-interventions (relaxing music or meditation) for your mental health and wellbeing.”

The start-up featured in the TOP 100 start-ups in Switzerland in 2018 and 2020. It received support from Venture Kick and was one of Venture Lab’s Venture Leaders.