Innovator’s Pitch Challenge Winners at RESI Boston

By Claire Jeong, Chief Conference Officer, Vice President of Investor Research, Asia BD, LSN

Last week, we organized a very successful multi-day Redefining Early Stage Investments (RESI) event, which was our first in-person event in 2+ years! At RESI Boston, we had 61 companies participate in the Innovator’s Pitch Challenge (IPC). These finalist companies pitched to a judging panel and a full audience and exhibited a poster showcasing their technology. All attendees were provided with “RESI Cash” to vote for their favorite innovators.

RESI Boston 2022 Innovator’s Pitch Challenge Winners

1^st Place – Suma

Denice Wharton, Founder/CEO of Suma

Suma is an online management system that simplifies and streamlines the licensing and renewal process for medical professionals. Initially, our product will target workers that have an increased labor market dropout risk yet are in high demand, highly diverse and have high care impact. Certified Nurse Assistants (CNA) and Home Health Aides (HHA) provide basic direct patient care, measure vitals and help patients with activities of daily living (ADL) such as feeding, grooming, bathing, etc. They work predominantly in nursing homes, home health agencies, hospitals, and other long-term care settings caring for the elderly, sick and/or disabled. These positions are held mostly by people of color, women, immigrants, low income and at-risk populations, and are considered entry-level nursing positions. There is an overwhelming need for these healthcare workers nationwide and creating an easy way to maintain their employment will provide resources for our economy and save businesses thousands of dollars every year.

2^nd Place – Leuko Labs

Carlos Castro Gonzalez, CEO of Leuko Labs

Leuko is an MIT spinout developing PointCheckTM, the world’s first medical device that can monitor white blood cells non-invasively. By enabling more frequent at-home monitoring, Leuko aims to improve clinical outcomes for more than 2M cancer chemotherapy patients a year, reduce their chemotherapy-related hospital readmissions by 50% and save >$6B annually in healthcare cost.

3^rd Place – RudaCure

Yong Ho Kim, CEO of RUDACURE

RudaCure is a clinical stage bio-pharmaceutical start-up founded in 2018 and based in South Korea that is developing medicines for incurable diseases based on the most advanced life-science technologies to help improve human lives. By developing treatment techniques for intractable and incurable diseases, RudaCure will solve its unmet needs and treat the physical and mental pain for patients suffering from them. With creative pharmaceutical development and biomedical research, RudaCure is on the path to grow into a global pharmaceutical company.

Current main products in development include RCI001 for dry eye disease, which is in pre-IND phase and awaiting to start Phase 2 FDA clinical trials next year. RudaCure also plan to secure additional indications for RCI001 including conjunctivitis, keratitis and corneal ulcers. Second in development is RCI002, which is a non-opioid treatment for neuropathic and chronic pain currently in optimization stage. Other early stage products in development include treatments for atopic dermatitis, metastasis and CRPS.

Since April of 2021, RudaCure has successfully licensed-out RCI001 to Hanlim Pharm for domestic rights in a $12 million deal, and is currently looking for more investors and partners to license-out for international markets. Helping RudaCure along the way, are start-up accelerators MassChallenge and Shinhan Square Bridge, which are both helping RudaCure enter the US market.