Brinc, a global venture accelerator, has had a successful exit of one of its portfolio teams. Hong Kong & India-based, Jetbrain Robotics, a MedTech startup who went through Brinc’s Hong Kong Fall 2018 Hardware & IoT accelerator program, has been acquired by Solaris. Ajay Vishnu, Jetbrain’s founder, will join Canada-based Solaris to oversee the technology integration and as CTO of Solaris. The entire Jetbrain team will also merge with the Solaris team over the coming few months.
Jetbrain has been dedicated to providing end-to-end solutions for modern hospitals by designing robots to enhance patient care. Through their Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMR) technology, they have created game-changing delivery robots that provide a secure and traceable chain of custody for medicine and blood, as well as customer support robots that offer clinical or logistical guidance. Not only does their solution improve operational workflows in complex healthcare environments, but also provides quantifiable efficiencies and patient experience improvements.
According to Solaris, the addition of Jetbrain to their team will enhance their expertise in this field. In addition, the subsequent extension of Solaris’ offering to include disinfection, automated delivery, logistics and patient experience will enable the company to deliver the industry’s first comprehensive approach to healthcare robotics.
“With its growing market position and extensive distribution network, Solaris is well-positioned to help us further develop and deploy our technologies while continuing to support our mission of improving healthcare using cutting-edge AMR technologies across a broad spectrum of use cases,” said Ajay Vishnu, Founder and CEO of Jetbrain Robotics.
Solaris is a leader in IoT connected service robots. Since 2017, the company has conducted research on the effectiveness of UV technology against communicable human respiratory viruses such as COVID-19. This research has revealed that their technology is capable of eradicating more than 99% of such pathogens in as little as 10 seconds, and has led to the development of a number of products by the industry-leading company.
“At Solaris we are very proud of the growing impact we make on a daily basis in the healthcare industry by delivering practical and approachable products, designed to improve patient outcomes and healthcare operations,” said Val Ramanand, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman at Solaris. “The acquisition of Jetbrain supports our continued mission to improve care, keep spaces safe, and ultimately help save lives in healthcare facilities globally.”
Adam Steinhoff, Co-Founder and CEO at Solaris, added: “We identified Jetbrain’s technology as an opportunity to improve upon our core products while providing safety, accountability and compliance-based platform technologies that help our customers effectively utilize resources and improve workflows.”
Jetbrain’s journey with Brinc
Jetbrain participated in Brinc’s Fall 2018 Hong Kong Hardware & IoT accelerator program. After reviewing 1,000+ applications and following several rounds of Due Diligence, Brinc found that Jetbrain had an innovative, scalable, and effective AMR solution to challenges seen in global hospital logistics and offered Ajay a place in it’s three-month accelerator program in Hong Kong. An initial technology review was carried out by Brinc, who found the technical approach was deemed sound and having a significant probability of success at achieving “design for manufacturing”.
With the help of various mentors, corporates, industry experts and investors, as well as a visit to manufacturing and testing facilities in China, Ajay gained a greater understanding about the complexities of mass manufacturing. With the support of Brinc’s tailor made educational curriculum, the Jetbrain team left the program with the tools, resources and support they would need to move from a prototype stage of product development to create a mass manufacture product. In addition, Ajay had the opportunity to pitch to more than 300 investors and technology experts at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange at Brinc’s demo day.
During and post the program, Ajay explored various go to market strategies, and built a cash flow and budget for the next two years of operation. This shaped his fundraising strategies as well, and his later decision to collaborate with partners that are well implanted in other markets, as an expansion strategy. Brinc helped to clarify market standards and usual healthy practices about fundraising and scale up strategies. Brinc also supported Ajay in reaching an optimised budget to build robots, with an emphasis on securing patent protection that would provide very significant competitive advantage over other peers in this space and (by reducing costs) an advantage for competing with incumbent robots. Brinc believes that, collectively, that the intellectual property held by Jetbrain is but the start of a valuable IP portfolio for the company that can be used internally, licensed to other companies if appropriate, and that increases the ultimate value of the company, as it has for their acquirer, Solaris.
Commenting on Brinc’s role in the company’s success, Ajay said: “Brinc has helped us immensely improve our plans for the future, especially in terms of cash flow, project management, knowledge about supply chain, and manufacturing.” Learn more about Ajay’s journey through his blog post.
In addition to being part of Brinc, Jetbrain received seed investment from Artesian Venture Partners (AVP), Australia’s largest and most active early-stage venture capital firm with over $400M FUM. They invest in startups at seed, angel and growth stages in Australia, China, and Southeast Asia. They have partnered with Brinc, to develop a pre-screened and de-risked pipeline for larger later-stage investments from its own late-stage funds. They rely on Brinc at the accelerator level to source & de-risk opportunities. Additionally, Artesian can continue to follow-on indefinitely with Brinc portfolio companies.
“Brinc stands out amongst its competitors as they provide support beyond the program. The success and rapid development of Jetbrain is a true testament to the benefits of Brinc’s accelerator programs.” said Tim Heasley, Partner & COO of Artesian.
Accelerators are great options for global early stage startups and their benefits go beyond just the financial capital invested. Focusing on forward-thinking technology startups, Brinc offers guidance on capital raising, industry insights, mentorship and a sense of community within their global family of founders. In addition, the accelerator allows startups to connect with ecosystem partners to help them grow and find new opportunities (partnerships, pilots, POCs) within their industry. As equity partners, Brinc’s goal is to stand beside their founders & companies at every step of their entrepreneurial journeys.
“We couldn’t be more proud of Ajay and his team’s progress over the years. Ajay’s perseverance and commitment to his mission is what kept the company afloat and headed in the right direction even through fairly tough times. Getting to know Adam, Val and the Solaris team over the last few months we’ve also seen a tremendous mind meld between the aspirations & vision of both companies. We’re excited about the roll they will play together to control the environmental spread of dangerous pathogens and keep hospital patients safe.” said Manav Gupta, Founder and CEO of Brinc.
Brinc continues to support startups through its global accelerator programs. Applications are open until August 15th for upcoming programs kicking off in the Fall this year. Apply now: https://bit.ly/33OQ0lC
Jetbrain Robotics
Jetbrain Robotics builds robots that make hospitals smarter. End to end solution for new age hospitals to provide enhanced patient care, using Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMR’s) that assist with nursing & managing internal logistics, enabling hospital staff to focus on what they do best… save lives. Learn more at https://jetbrain.ai.
Solaris Disinfection
Solaris Disinfection has built Lytbot, a portable ‘no-touch’ disinfection technology that uses pulsed UV light to eliminate pathogens in seconds. Automated disinfection represents a critical component in the future of healthcare infection prevention. Use of automated technologies can dramatically reduce infection rates, protecting lives and healthcare budgets. Learn more at https://solarislyt.com.
Brinc
Brinc is a different breed of venture capital and accelerator platform. Core to their business is the belief that some of the world’s biggest challenges can be solved by entrepreneurs, who they like to call GAME CHANGERS. Brinc believes that deep technology focused startups can fundamentally change how we move, what we eat, how we feel and where we live for the better if they are given the right backing. That’s what Brinc believes they are here for. To support and mentor founders and their teams from across the world and provide investment to help them grow.
Brinc currently operates ten multi-disciplinary accelerator programs across six countries and has made 144 investments. Brinc & Artesian have also come together recently to launch the BrincArtesian EMDE Access Fund which will also be able to provide follow on co-invest and provide follow on capital with Lever VC once live. Learn more at www.brinc.io.
