UTokyo IPC announced USD 3m investment to Adriakaim Inc.

Tokyo, Japan – UTokyo Innovation Platform Co., Ltd. (“UTokyo IPC”), the investment arm for the University of Tokyo, announced USD 3m investment to Adriakaim Inc., a medical device startup to tackle acute myocardial infarction (AMI).

Heart diseases are one of the leading causes of death in the aging society.  Regarding AMI, which occupies almost 20% of all heart diseases in Japan (*1), 100k in Japan and 1m in US annually receive emergency surgery.  AMI turns into chronic heart failure, and patients suffer from poor prognosis with low quality of life (QoL).

Adriakaim develops a solution to this challenging issue in modern medicine. Their device  named ARIS is to provide electric stimulation to vagus nerve, thereby reducing areas of infarction—a novel idea which any drugs have not succeeded its reactivation.

It is estimated that the number of patients with heart failure reaches 1.32m in Japan and 8.49m in the US by 2030, whose medical costs amount to approx. USD 78 b.  UTokyo IPC believes Adriakaim brings a big social impact from Japan to the unmet medical needs in the world.

About UTokyo IPC

UTokyo IPC is the venture investment arm established in 2016 for the University of Tokyo, the world-leading research university having its main campus in Tokyo, Japan.

UTokyo IPC invested in more than 20 university-driven tech startups across all stages, via mutually complementing IPC 1 Fund and AOI 1 Fund.

The team members passionately support all processes for promising entrepreneurs from scratching of their businesses. The incubation program “1stRound” pours intensive hands-on assistance and financial supports to entrepreneurs.

(*1) https://www.saiseikai-shiga.jp/about/qi/ryoikibetsu/heart/4.html