Almirall, S.A. (ALM) has launched its second innovation challenge open to worldwide startups who can disrupt the future of digital health. The main goal of the accelerator program Digital Garden, powered by Almirall, is to accelerate the growth of start-ups that offer innovative technology-based services and solutions throughout the patient journey. Start-ups can apply between now and October 31 at almiralldigitalgarden.com for a chance to participate in the nine-month acceleration program in The Digital Garden.
With this Second Harvest, the Digital Garden, reaffirms its commitment to digital innovation through the development of services and solutions that tackle existing and future dermatological challenges. The program is not only focused on medical dermatology. Aditionally, it is open to start-ups with a solution that can help improve pharma processes and commercial models.
This year, in addition, Almirall will partner with start-ups to co-create solutions in a fast-paced, agile manner— such as through hackathons or similar—allowing the startups to demonstrate their value and validate their solution in just a few weeks after identifying the problem statement.
Start-ups can visit almiralldigitalgarden.com to apply or to obtain information about the program’s admission criteria and offerings. Upon reviewing the applications, Almirall will prepare a shortlist of the 10 companies that will be invited to pitch their business model at a virtual event sponsored by Almirall in November. The five winning teams will begin a nine-month accelerator program in January, with the goal of growing their companies with the mentorship of Almirall and its global network of partners including HealthXL and other experts. The company expects they will graduate into venture capital funding through its network within the digital health venture capital ecosystem. The program will feature an investor day, as well as networking opportunities with venture capitalists. In light of the global situation, the space located at the Barcelona Health Hub at Sant Pau Hospital will still be open and available, but start-up founders will be allowed to remain in their country if they prefer opening up the aperture of application from a global scale.
In addition to the accelerator program, the five start-ups selected will receive benefits including a financial reward, which will be determined according to an individual gap analysis of each start-up and the achievement of certain milestones. In addition to being mentored by top pharma industry experts of all specializations and program stages, they will also have the chance to leverage top hospitals in Barcelona as a testbed for digital pilots (with potential access to HCPs and patients), work on Almirall projects, and access Almirall’s communication and PR networks to promote their projects, among other incentives.
Almirall boosts engagement with start-ups from the first edition
Launched a year ago, Digital Garden, powered by Almirall, has worked closely with four start-ups (Derma2go, UVisio, Intrepid Analytics and Haut.ai) to guide them through their journey by providing training on leadership, management, growth and the pharma industry, among other areas, and introducing them to hospitals, KOLs and venture capital investors. During this time, the company has also established formal collaborations with the startups to develop solutions that will directly impact its upcoming launches and how we connect with patients.
“We are pleased to launch this Second Harvest of the Digital Garden, which will allow us to partner with start-ups that are working on solutions that can disrupt the future of digital health linked to our area of expertise—medical dermatology—or that are rolling out models that can help us improve our internal processes and go-to-market models. I’m proud to say that we have strengthened our commitment to innovation and to the digital health ecosystem at large through this second edition of the program. We aim to continue working together with startups, supporting their future growth and enriching the value of those startups to deliver solutions to those who need it,” explained Francesca Wuttke, Chief Digital Officer of Almirall.
About Almirall
Almirall is a global biopharmaceutical company focused on skin health. We collaborate with scientists and healthcare professionals to address patient’s needs through science to improve their lives. Our Noble Purpose is at the core of our work: “Transform the patients' world by helping them realize their hopes and dreams for a healthy life”. We invest in differentiated and groundbreaking medical dermatology products to bring our innovative solutions to patients in need.
The company, founded in 1943 and headquartered in Barcelona, is publically traded on the Spanish Stock Exchange and is a member of the IBEX 35 (ticker: ALM). Throughout its 77-year history, Almirall has retained a strong focus on the needs of patients. Currently, Almirall has a direct presence in 21 countries and strategic agreements in over 70, through 13 subsidiaries, with about 1,800 employees. Total revenues in 2019 were 908.4 million euros.
For more information, please visit almirall.com
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