Madison Rose, and her digital health business Aspedan, has scooped a national award from Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency, to help grow the business.
Aspedan, a Digital Health Rewired 2024 Pitchfest finalist in the pre-revenue generating category, is an innovative digital health start-up that aims to help create a world where every person is able to maximise their healthy lifespan, reduce their incidence of chronic disease, and live healthier for longer.
Rose is among the 233 high-potential innovators who have been awarded a £50,000 grant to help propel Aspedan’s mission. The business also receives 12 months of tailored business support to help the business grow, thus stimulating the UK’s economy.
Innovate UK funding is enabling Aspedan to build a specific feature within their digital health app to help people with high blood pressure (also referred to as hypertension) to lower their blood pressure.
Starting from a digital health consultation, Aspedan’s technology analyses available data from fitness trackers/smartwatches, blood biomarkers, genetics, and Bluetooth scales and blood pressure monitors.
With this data, Aspedan’s smartphone app provides personalised and medically validated health plans alongside a range of bespoke incentivising and motivational features, including daily scores, check-ins and community sharing, designed to help people stick to their health plans and rewarding them for returning to healthy habits on a daily basis.
Rose said: “We are delighted to have won support from Innovate UK for Aspedan. This award is allowing Aspedan to build a feature specifically designed to help people lower their blood pressure.
“High blood pressure is known as ‘the silent killer’, and it affects more than a quarter of the UK population, and we’re very passionate about addressing this issue. It’s also fantastic to be part of an Innovate UK award designed to support under-represented founders, particularly in an environment where female founders only receive 1-2% of funding from venture capital.”
In line with the UK’s growing appetite for innovation, this new award programme was amongst the most highly engaged funding competitions Innovate UK has ever delivered – with over 2,100 entrepreneurs applying for funding and business mentorship.
Building on the success of Innovate UK’s targeted programmes, like Women in Innovation and Young Innovators, this latest funding is designed to find and support the fresh innovation talent the UK needs.
You can watch Aspedan battle it out in the live Pitchfest final at Rewired24, which takes place at the NEC in Birmingham on 12-13 March. For a taste of what’s to come, watch each finalist’s online pitches on the Rewired website here. You can also view the full Rewired programme here.
To witness the judges putting the finalists through their paces and see who will take the Pitchfest crown for 2024, register here.