Trendlines tripled its Singapore medtech startup count in 2018

CATALIST-LISTED incubator The Trendlines Group set up four more medical technology (medtech) startups in Singapore in 2018, including tie-ups with the National Healthcare Group and A*ccelerate, the commercialisation arm of the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star).

The Israeli-based investor, which focuses on early-stage medical and agricultural technologies, now has six startups here through its wholly owned Trendlines Medical Singapore subsidiary, it said on Thursday.

Eric Loh, chief executive of Trendlines Medical Singapore, said in a statement that a partnership among entrepreneurs, clinicians, researchers, business mentors and other stakeholders will "create greater dynamics to realise the full potential of a technologically focused company".

"It is with this belief that we have a team of dedicated, experienced individuals at Trendlines Medical Singapore who work closely with our six portfolio companies to realize their full commercial potential and look forward to evaluating additional new, exciting technologies to incubate more companies this year."

The new startups include Medulla Pro Technology, which is developing an imaging system for lumbar puncture procedures, and AyzerSense Technology, which is tackling the problem of pressure ulcers in patients with technology from Ngee Ann Polytechnic.

Trendlines Medical Singapore is accredited as a Startup SG Accelerator by government agency Enterprise Singapore. Johnny Teo, the agency's director of healthcare and biomedical, said that, given the complexity of the medtech sector, "it is increasingly important to adopt a multi-disciplinary approach that combines clinical, research and commercialisation expertise in bringing a medtech product to market".