Fresh Ideas from Düsseldorf #02
Featured this time: a MedTech company, a start-up for sustainable energy solutions and a sports app that brings people together. What do CUREosity, Solarey and PLAYSPORTS have in common? The drive to make the world a better, nicer and more sustainable place with smart ideas.
Motivating therapy with VR
Those who are motivated and carry out their therapy regularly have the best chance to succeed. Following their own experiences within their families, Thomas Saur, Stefan Arand and Marco Faulhammer founded CUREosity. The first product of the Düsseldorf-based medtech company is called CUREO and is a therapy system that works with virtual reality (VR). “Modern therapies must be easy to implement, motivate patients and ideally also be fun,” says Thomas Saur. “With CUREO, we make various therapy approaches and settings possible in just a small suitcase.” Whether cognitive or sensorimotor training - the system can be used in very different ways thanks to different modules; for example, after a stroke or an operation. In the hospital bed, in outpatient therapy or in aftercare.
Virtual reality for a better therapy outcome - this is the mission of the start-up company CUREosity.
The CUREosity team has already won several awards, including the Digital Health Award. In the meantime, the therapy system is also in use in several internation-al hospitals. “The response all around has been really overwhelming,” says Stefan Arand. “It is especially nice for us to see how enthusiastic many patients are when they test CUREO for the first time.” And Caesar van Heyningen, CFO of CUREosity, adds: “In the future, we want to develop more modules and support clinics in digitalisation - with smart assessments, analysis and planning tools. And we want to bring our system to even more countries to enable as many people as possible to receive therapy with CUREO.” •
CUREosity GmbH, Burgunderstr. 27, 40549 Düsseldorf
www.cureosity.de
In motion
with friends
and colleagues
Football without a team? Not possible. Always jogging alone? Also boring. Sport is simply better together! For this reason, Fabian Becker and Roy Pöschel have developed the app PLAYSPORTS, which is intended to en-able everyone to play their favourite sport regardless of time and place - on site or digitally via livestream. “We know from our own experience how difficult it is to find players and sports fields for team sports spontaneously,” says Fabian. “At PLAYSPORTS, football, beach volleyball, group fitness and other sports are as easily available as jogging or going to the gym would otherwise be.”
The two founders launched their sports app in April 2020 - at the most inopportune time. Roy recalls, “It was the time of the first lockdown and team sports were banned across the country. To launch a platform during that time whose goal is to bring people together to sweat was a bit surreal.” But the two improvised and without further ado developed a booking system with contact tracking for sports clubs.Despite the challenging start, PLAYSPORTS is now Düsseldorf's official sports app and moves the city, for example with the non-profit campaign “Düsseldorf spielt Tischtennis” (Düsseldorf plays table tennis) with Henkel, Stadtwerke and Borussia Düsseldorf. More than 30,000 people and over 250 clubs use the platform throughout Germany - both privately and for business.
With their new corporate sports offer PLAYSPORTS MOVE, the two now also want to strengthen team spirit in
companies. •
PLAYSPORTS GmbH, Breite Str. 27 , 40213 Düsseldorf
www.playsports.world
Cool shade and green energy
A prototype of the solar blind „RaffSun“, with which the two founders Morris Haid and Florian Legermann want to turn windows into green power plants.
Keeping interiors pleasantly cool in summer and generating energy at the same time? With the start-up Solaregy, this idea could soon become reality. The product is called RaffSun and is - in short - an external blind with solar collectors. While still at school, Morris Haid and Florian Legermann decided to make the world a little better and more sustainable with a green innovation. The idea for the photovoltaic blinds was finally born in the course of the business plan competition “changes.AWARD” in 2018. The two founders were just 16 and 17 years old at the time.
With the idea of harnessing solar energy where it is an issue anyway - namely on windows flooded with sunlight - Morris and Florian have since been able to convince numerous juries and win several prizes. The two see office complexes with large glass fronts in particular as ideal areas of application for their product. “We turn windows into green power plants,” explains Florian. “To do this, we integrate photovoltaic modules onto the blind slats, which can be optimally aligned using our intelligent control system. This way we produce green electricity, save CO2 and at the same time provide shade in summer.” The solar blinds are not yet available for purchase, but they should be ready in 2023. Morris is confident: “At the moment we are focusing on the details of product development and the production process. Our close cooperation with the sunshade manufacturer Reflexa opens up a lot of opportunities for us that, as a start-up, we wouldn't otherwise have in this form.” •
Solaregy UG, An der Kemm 23, 40885 Ratingen
www.solaregy.de
Navigating the funding maze
Funding can be a good way to get started. However, there are many funding options available, each with different requirements. The “Fördercafé” offers help here. The independent business unit of the management consultancy Dr. Kakuschke & Partner AG, which cooperates with Auxmoney, among others, evaluates the eligibility for funding based on the respective business model and degree of innovation, searches for suitable financing options and provides support with applications. The search for funding and an initial orientation talk on potentials are free of charge.
www.foerdercafe.de
Words Maria Leipold
Pictures Cureosity GmbH, Solaregy, Playsports GmbH