Gründungsförderungeatappie receives EXIST start-up grant
21 September 2023
published by hei_INNOVATION
With the aim of enabling young people with eating disorders such as anorexia or bulimia to bridge the waiting time for a therapy place, a team of three scientists successfully applied for an EXIST start-up grant with the help of the transfer agency hei_INNOVATION. The 12-month funding phase began on 1 September, during which the founders of eatappie will be supported in the further development of their start-up project with a grant of 162,700 €.
eatappie is a health app for children and young adults with eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa or bulimia. It is prescribed by doctors directly after diagnosis and enables therapeutic bridging of the waiting time for a therapy place, which is currently 5-6 months. The app contains eating protocols, a weight curve and evidence-based therapy modules and exercises. Patients receive digital therapeutic support regardless of their place of residence, psychosocial background and personal resources. The positive consequences should be a better course of the disease, a significantly improved quality of life for those affected and reduced costs for the healthcare system.
The idea for eatappie came from the two co-founders Dr. med. Szarah Sanchez Roman and Dr. med. Larissa Niemeyer, who worked together in child and adolescent psychiatry and experienced the lack of therapy offers for adolescents first-hand. This situation gave rise to the idea of developing an app for adolescents with eating disorders and making all their experience and therapeutic knowledge available to a broad group of those affected.
Szarah Sanchez Roman, MD, and Larissa Niemeyer, MD, provide the eatappie team with psychotherapeutic and medical expertise. They studied medicine at the University of Heidelberg, obtained their doctorates and subsequently worked at the Central Institute for Mental Health as assistant doctors in the Clinic for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Dr. med. Victor Saase, another co-founder of eatappie, was employed as a doctor at the Mannheim Medical Faculty and later at the DKFZ in Heidelberg after completing his medical studies in Mainz and brings the necessary technical know-how with his experience in medical software development.
When applying for the EXIST start-up grant, eatappie was advised and
accompanied by hei_INNOVATION, the transfer agency of Heidelberg University.
"With Amina Daca from hei_INNOVATION, we had a competent partner at our side
right from the start, who guided us through the application jungle and was
always available to us. We are very happy to start finalising the business
plan and founding the company together with her," say the founders of
eatappie.
The team already has several expressions of interest, including from one
of Germany's leading health insurance companies, is supported by the
LifeScience Accelerator BW and was a finalist in the first hei_INNOVATION
ideas competition in the category "Social Innovation". Professor Marie Ottilie
Frenkel and Professor Magnus von Knebel Doeberitz support the three founders
as professional mentors with many years of expertise both in conducting
scientific studies and in medical spin-offs.
The founders are now working on completing the app and making it known to health professionals through congresses and competitions. The team is also planning several studies with healthy and sick participants, CE certification as a medical device and, in the long term, approval as a digital health application.
The EXIST start-up grant supports university graduates, scientists and students throughout Germany in preparing their technology-oriented and knowledge-based start-ups. The EXIST funding programme is financed by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection.