Exist funding goes to Bayreuth start-up

With over 700,000 euros in funding, the start-up Incontalert is now starting to develop a prototype of its sensor. The product should be ready for the market in two years.

For the first time, an Exist funding program of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology goes to a start-up of the University of Bayreuth (UBT), as the university proudly announces right away. The start-up Incontalert will receive 712,000 euros over the next 18 months to make its product ready for the market in two years. Incontalert is developing a sensor that shows people with incontinence or bladder dysfunction the level of their bladder on their mobile phone, so that damage to the kidney and uncontrolled loss of urine can be prevented.

"Incontalert's product could make a significant difference in the lives of many millions of people," says UBT mentor Maximilian Röglinger of the grant. "We have a lot more to look forward to from Incontalert - we're very excited about their successes and it's great fun to actively support them on their journey."

The idea for Incontalert came from Jannik Lockl, who founded the start-up in 2017 while studying with fellow student Tristan Zürl. The developed sensor works with a combination of infrared spectroscopy and machine learning algorithms. In 2019, Incontalert received an initial funding of 250,000 euros by winning the Medical Valley Award. Today, the team consists of four heads: Nicolas Ruhland and Pascal Fechner are also engineering students at UBT and have joined Incontalert.

"None of this would have been possible without the super support of the University of Bayreuth," Lockl says of the funding. The Exist research transfer funding programme consists of two phases in which research-based start-up projects are supported. The first phase focuses on the feasibility of an idea and the development of prototypes, the second phase promotes the path to independence and supports the search for external investors.