Salva Health took home the crown at the TechCrunch Disrupt Startup Battlefield this year and secured the Disrupt Cup as well as prize money of $100,000 prize. The win highlights power of startup innovation to address global health disparities and particularly that one that is close to home for millions of women in Latin America.
TechCrunch Disrupt is a small feat and 20 startups were chosen from hundreds which battled for days in front of venture capitalists and tech luminaries. Salva Health stood out beating promising competitors like Gecko Materials, Luna, MabLab and Stitch3D. Each had an ambitious vision but the mission of Salva Health to improve early breast cancer detection resonated deeply with the judges.
Salva Health was co-founded by Valentina Agudelo, who discovered during her college years a distressing reality about breast cancer survival rates in her native Colombia and across Latin America. Many women in the regions lose their lives to breast cancer due to late diagnosis in rural communities. Agudelo and her team set out to change it with a theoretical portable device designed to detect breast cancer early.
Runner-up Gecko Materials showcased the immense breadth of innovation among the finalists. Its revolutionary dry-adhesive product was inspired by the natural cling of gecko feet. It promises versatile applications across industries and the product requires no counterpart surface as well as leaves no residue. It boasts an impressive reusability threshold. The innovation speaks to the growing influence of biomimicry in sustainable tech solutions.
The win of Salva Health is a forward-thinking step to its technology and also a call to action for startups globally. If a small team with a big idea can take on such a significant health challenge, the potential for change is limitless.
