Can you explain briefly how your company came about (team, origins and project originality)?
My partner and co-founder, Julien SAPIN, PhD in Engineering Sciences, Master in Civil Engineering and Industrial Engineer, has been conducting research since 2007 at the Université catholique de Louvain-la-Neuve (UCL, Belgium) and was financed from October 2010 to October 2014 by the Walloon Region as part of the First Spin-off program, in order to highlight the undeniable contribution of a robotic and interactive medical device during the rehabilitation programs of patients.
This first invention, realized through the conception of a robot dedicated to rehabilitation, the REAplan, aims to democratize the access to very innovative rehabilitation technologies for adults suffering from a disability, as a result of stroke in particular, as well as children with cerebral palsy (CP).
The company is positioned here in the market of neurological rehabilitation, offering a robotic solution intended for the majority of hospitals and rehabilitation centers, whereas until then the existing solutions did not offer cost / benefit ratios compatible with the financial resources constraints of the majority of rehabilitation services, under-staffed compared to the needs of their patients. The idea is to allow access to rehabilitation robotics to the largest number of patients, rather than to an extremely limited number of patients.
UCL approached Eric Hanesse at the end of 2014 to explore the opportunity to bring this invention to the market of medical rehabilitation devices through the creation of a company.
The results of this analysis led to the creation of Axinesis in April 2015. Several milestones were reached since then: obtaining ISO 9001 and 13485 certifications for the company, obtaining the CE marking of the product, searching new offices and creating a certified production site, leading the commercial development on the native and international markets.
The company also carried out a first fundraising in March 2016 by including in its capital the Belgian funds Vives and Nivel Invest.
What is your initial assessment of this entrepreneurial adventure?
An extremely positive outcome, when you find a meaning in the mission you lead every day: not only is the creation of a business an extremely motivating adventure, even if the days are often long and sometimes difficult, but when the object of your project is aimed at improving the living conditions of patients, of your fellow citizens, everything is said.
Have you ever benefited from the network of EDHEC graduates?
Yes. In my opinion, the use of the network opens up good opportunities to any entrepreneur. I mean: when you target a B2B customer, a "network" approach is a real accelerator, in the sense that it allows you easily to get in touch with people, thanks to the intermediation of a benevolent alumni, or with this alumni.
What advice do you have for new entrepreneurs ?
If I had to reflect on my experience, after two and a half years of entrepreneurial ventures, I would address the following points:
- Developing an offer, creating a company, all this takes time, especially on regulated markets, such as the medical market for Axinesis or in innovative and emerging markets: it is extremely positive to be one of the recognized actors of a market that is emerging, but it is necessary to keep going in time, the time that the professional behaviors, that the purchasing behaviors of your targetted market follow this new trend. It's not (inevitably) that you're not impacting enough.
- Being a start-up does not allow you to tinker: your customers expect from you the same guarantees in terms of product / service reliability as what they know from their historical suppliers. It is up to you to bring the extra thing (disruption, innovation) that will convince them to change their way of doing by adopting your offer and that will justify this cost of change. And you will generally not be able to avoid the work of a certification (ISO 13485) or CE marking. These are steps that, if properly carried out, allow you to develop a veritable bakcbone for your company, which can then rely on processes.
- The use of fundraising may very quickly be necessary or desired - it makes it possible to secure a certain future (compensation for cash burn over a more or less significant period) and to really structure the activity (production premises, integration of skills, etc.). It is better to be diluted, at the level of the capital of your company, and to have visibility for its development, than to hold the bulk of your capital and survive only by bootstrapping, without prospects. Everything is in the timing of the fundraising ...
- To summarize, bear in mind that you need, each and every day, resilience and optimism
What’s next for your company ?
Mainly the acceleration of our commercial development, which requires the recruitment of employees and / or the signing of distribution contracts on a case-by-case basis, in a number of new markets.
We are present in some European countries and in Canada. We need to be systematic about Europe and consider the tremendous potential of other markets, especially North America.
The second point is the maintenance of the continuous evolution of our offer, by developing a strong capacity to integrate customers’ inputs and a speed to deliver these improvements.
The question is whether we can move forward at a sufficient pace by being financed by our operation, or whether it will be necessary to seek additional funding to reach a sufficient pace.
What are your expectations from the community of EDHEC graduates ?
Most of my public interventions aim to explain to people all what robotics can finally allow as improvements in the rehabilitation of patients while respecting the constraints of our health systems. We are talking about improving, as much as possible in our field, the daily lives of the 5 million people with a stroke every year, for example.
We are not talking about replacing humans, a theme that is often mentioned about robotics. We are talking about being able to do more and better than what is currently possible in conventional rehabilitation.
In this respect, all the contacts that can be found with the EDHEC graduate community are welcome: do not hesitate to bring our message to funders who could accompany us, to potential collaborators seeking meaning in their daily lives, to alumni working in the health sector.
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