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SIXSENSO wins Startup Capital Grant

ACCIÓ grant offers direct aid to emerging technology start-ups to advance in the initial phases of their ventures, develop their product or service and validate the business model to reach their markets

December 31, 2021

Each year, ACCIÓ, the agency for corporate competitiveness of the Government of Catalunya, launches Startup Capital, a call offering direct aid to emerging technology start-ups in need of financing in order to advance in the initial phases of their ventures, develop their product or service and validate the business model to reach their markets.

In the 2021 call, 138 startups from all over Catalonia applied for the funding. ICFO Spin-off SIXSENSO was one of the twenty-five companies selected for funding from a variety of different sectors for their project, "Systems for rapid on-site detection of pathogens in water".

With this grant, SIXSENSO will develop and build up new upgraded versions of their SX-CYT Fluorescence Reader and SX-CON Concentrator devices for in-situ and rapid specific detection of microorganisms in water. In addition, it will validate these devices with real samples from end-user sites: environmental waters, port and ballast waters and samples from aquaculture facilities. The project also seeks to carry out a feasibility study and lab benchmarking for the use of the Sixsenso Concentrator in combination with clinical lateral flow devices (LFDs) to enable them for use with water samples for a new ultra-fast test to detect the presence / absence above threshold in just 30 minutes. This validation will enable a complementary technology more appropriate for rapid screening of contaminated sites, helping to open the market to target consumers.

Pedro Martinez, SIXSENSO’s CTO, commented “This award will help us advance our product development, significantly increasing its readiness level by validation benchmarks using real samples from relevant environments. It will also contribute to establishing the bases of the industrialization process to bring the devices and their consumables to a commercial phase.”