Ebenbuild likely to face million-dollar round

The start-up is developing an "artificial lung": a system to help medical professionals treat respiratory distress on an individual basis.

Munich-based startup Ebenbuild says it is close to securing several million euros in its first round of funding. The amount of investment could be as high as 2.5 million euros. According to the Handelsblatt the money should be enough to offer a product in two years at the latest, which will then also bring in money. The start-up aims to improve patients' chances of survival by improving their ventilation.

So far, founder Kei Müller has received funding of over 1.5 million euros. These have come from public funds or from companies such as chip giant Intel. The U.S. semiconductor manufacturer works closely with the company and provides software. So far, eight people work at Ebenbuild. The new investments are expected to double the number of employees.

Founder Müller is convinced that his development is urgently needed. He has already been working since 2018 on a computer-based system to help medical professionals treat acute respiratory distress. "Ventilation expertise is relatively rare in hospitals," Müller is quoted as saying in Handelsblatt. Even for specialists, he said, treating people with acute respiratory distress syndrome is difficult. Until now, treatment has often been based on written formulas, experience, trial and error.

Ebenbuild now wants to remedy this situation: The company's software creates a kind of digital copy of the lungs. This simulates how the lung tissue stretches during ventilation. According to the founder, a study conducted jointly with the University of Kiel has been successful. To prevent overstretching, the program shows what ventilation should look like. How important such a technique can be became visible recently in times of the Corona pandemic: the majority of Corona patients in intensive care units are affected by respiratory distress syndrome.