Deal highlights

• Medical device company with potential to save up to 2.6M newborn lives a year in emerging economies
• $7.1B target market by 2023: Medical devices in Africa
• Patent pending and additional provisional patents filed
• Founders are biomedical engineers out of Columbia University
• Techstars Chicago Class of 2018
• $770k raised to date from Columbia University, Cisco, Vodafone, ADAP Capital, Techstars, and others
• A for-profit Public Benefit Corporation
• Become part of Neopenda’s journey for as little as $100, and see how a little goes a long way in saving lives

We Are Neopenda.

Our name comes from “neo” - for neonates, and “penda” - Swahili for love. 

Preventable Newborn Mortality: 3 million newborns are lost in developing countries each year

In fact, a newborn born in a developing country like Uganda has a nine times poorer chance of surviving its first month than one born in the United States.

It doesn’t have to be this way. WHO data shows that 80% of newborn deaths are preventable. The primary causes are complications of preterm birth, birth asphyxia, and infections. Although these conditions are treatable, many newborns do not receive the attention they need because facilities are overcrowded, understaffed, and ill-equipped. Nurses in these facilities don’t have the tools they need to provide high quality neonatal care. As a result, babies are suffering—avoidably.

Neopenda’s Solution: A 4-in-1 Vital Signs Monitor

At Neopenda, we believe that all communities deserve access to innovative, life-saving health technology. There exists a massive opportunity to create appropriately designed medical devices for a largely untapped market in emerging economies, and to do so in a way that can improve quality of care for millions of patients in need.

Our first product is a wearable 4-in-1 vital signs monitor designed to enable more responsive and appropriate medical care of newborn infants in resource constrained hospital facilities. The patent-pending device uses reflectance pulse oximetry and temperature sensors, and is worn in a reusable band. It continuously measures:

The vitals from many devices are wirelessly displayed on a tablet, where the nurse can see what’s going on with all the babies. She gets alerted when vitals go outside the healthy range, so that she knows where her attention is needed and give patients the best chance to survive and thrive.

Today, nurses in these facilities have to check babies’ vitals by hand. However, hospitals don’t have enough staff to safely monitor newborns as often as they need to be. Neopenda’s product is the only option known to us that continuously measures all crucial vital signs, and unlike other patient monitors or baby monitors, is tailored for use in low-resource settings. We’ve designed our product to be affordable, easy to use, and withstand tough environments for a long time. It doesn’t require continuous stable power or wireless internet.

Hear From Our Stakeholders

Traction and Partners

We’re dedicated to getting this right. We’ve spent the last three years in hospitals in Uganda learning from stakeholders and testing the product with nurses and doctors through our human-centered design process.

We’ve already joined forces with a diverse set of partners across the value chain:

Recognition

Our Business Model

We will sell our product in packages containing 15 wearables, 1 tablet, and all associated software, power supplies, and accessories. This package provides comprehensive monitoring for an entire 15-bed newborn unit for less than half the price of a single machine traditionally used in the U.S.

• Gross profit margin on the package: 60-70%

• System installation, training, and product support is included

Dual distribution modes for rapid market entry:

• Selling direct to hospitals via in-country wholesale distributors such as the Joint Medical Stores in Uganda

• Partnering with aid agencies such as Doctors Without Borders, whose international presence will help us rapidly scale

Additionally, the detailed frontline health data we’re collecting is of great interest to parties like NGOs and Ministries of Health. We’re currently working on a strategy to aggregate, analyze, and monetize this valuable data.

The Market: An Untapped Opportunity in Africa

Competition

Funding History

Team Neopenda

We are a team of biomedical engineers and public health experts who care deeply about saving lives and transforming the way health tech is approached in emerging markets.

Co-founders Sona (CEO) and Teresa (CTO) began Neopenda in 2015 as graduate students in Biomedical Engineering at Columbia University, after witnessing first hand in Uganda the massive opportunity to sustainably improve health outcomes for vulnerable patients. We also have Dorothy and Michael based in Kampala, Uganda, working on program activities and research activities, respectively.

What's Next

We have a lot of exciting milestones to accomplish in the next year, and we need your help to get there! Here’s what we will do next: 

We will be using your investment dollars to bring our solution to market and accelerate our growth:

• $25,000 will fund a clinical study in Uganda
• $100,000 will fund 3 pilot studies in Uganda and 1 in Tanzania
• $200,000 will fund expansion to 6 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa plus India

Join Us!

Neopenda is pioneering health tech in emerging markets. We're starting with a vital signs monitoring tool to help save vulnerable newborn lives. 

We invite you to join us, as we create medical solutions for where they’re needed most!