No one likes to go under the knife. For patients, an operation is an intervention not only in the body, but also in everyday life. Medical staff deal with this differently, the operating room is like home. But it knows all too well about the real dangers. By adhering to complex hospital rules, it therefore ensures the high safety standards that apply to operations today. A comparatively inconspicuous, but central component are the surgical gloves. Typically made of latex, intact gloves protect both medical staff and patients from infections. However, needle punctures and cuts often occur while working on patients, and these injuries can hardly be avoided. How well the gloves protect, how little they impair the sense of touch and how much they cost, especially considering that they can only be used once: These are all aspects that are important for safe, affordable and successful operations all over the world.

The next level of innovation for surgical gloves is currently being developed in Berlin-Adlershof, the science and start-up hub in south-east Berlin. It is here that the young company Smarterials has its offices, laboratories and its manufacturing robot. In Berlin, which is not exactly short of start-ups, Smarterials is rather an exception, being research-intensive and industry orientated as opposed to technology driven. Two of the three founders met at the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM), which can be seen through the window from the current offices. Dr. Nikolaus Mirtschin is a materials engineer, Dr. Martin Bothe a physicist.

Two reasons, one idea

Bothe had the initial impetus for the business idea in 2015: "Actually there were two reasons. My professor at the time encouraged me to think about filing a patent when we were queuing at a Subway and I watched as my sandwich was being made by an employee wearing disposable gloves. I thought that the gloves or their material are an interesting topic. At the same time, my sister was working as an intern, she had injured herself in surgery and spent a frightening time in the emergency room until she knew that she was not infected with a blood-borne infection. Bothe brought both themes together. The idea was born to improve surgical gloves with intelligent materials.

The two scientists used start-up platforms to find a third person from the finance world. They found Michael Schneiker, who had been toying with the idea of becoming an entrepreneur for some time. And thus, Smarterials was born.

Research, try, think ahead

However, the path from the initial idea of how to improve the glove material to today, was long and rocky. It's about chemical challenges in developing the materials that the gloves are made of, about patents, about production facilities in Malaysia and what they can and cannot do. It is about costs, understanding the market for medical devices and much more. Such an idea cannot merely be financed from petty cash. The success story of the Berlin founders is therefore not only that of a good and important product idea and innovative scientific approaches, but also that of successfully financing the necessary research and developing the business model.

Berlin Partner for Business and Technology has been supporting the company since the pre-foundation phase. In April 2016, the founders sought advice from Volker Erb, Project Manager Innovation in the field of Biotech and Pharmaceuticals, on which subsidies were available for the establishment of the company. Smarterials then applied to the Investitionsbank Berlin for "Pro FIT early stage financing", which enabled them to build up a corporate infrastructure and the first necessary personnel capacities. In order to further advance the development of the technology, the young company subsequently received "Pro FIT project financing".

Assistance with financing

As it was nearing its end and the company needed new funding, a meeting was organised with the Innovation, Promotion and Funding Unit, which also houses the Enterprise Europe Network (EEN). Together with Elena Arndt, they examined whether the company would fit into the European support programme "SME-Instrument". It started with an application for Phase 1 the "Feasibility Study", in which above all the economic feasibility of the project as well as the potential customers were to be examined. The business plan was further developed in order to convert the existing prototype into a marketable solution. The project was approved by the European Union in 2018 with funding of 50,000 euros. Berlin Partner subsequently assisted the company in applying for Phase 2, an "innovation project". It was submitted in the summer of 2019, received a positive evaluation and, after a pitch in Brussels, the company was awarded project funding totalling 2.6 million euros.

"We have two locational advantages here in Berlin: the Adlershof Technology Park is ideal for us because we are networked with the science next door and with interesting companies, and we have cooperation partners and experts on site with whom we constantly exchange ideas. In turn, the good support we received from Berlin Partner and other funding agencies in Berlin helped us to access regional and European funding opportunities in addition to business angels and other investors. With this, we were able to go our research-intensive direction," explains Michael Schneiker.

Soon the new glove material is to be used in large series and the founders will have achieved their first goal. The approaches for the next innovation steps are already on the table. Medical staff and patients all over the world will hopefully continue to benefit from good ideas out of Berlin, supported by the state and the European Union. The support provided by Berlin Partner and the EEN can continue to be a great help, be it in acquiring funding or finding business partners.