Established in 2018, Foldink is a life science startup based in Armenia and United States of America. Foldink specializes in tissue engineering, a technology which allows to create living tissues in laboratory conditions.

In a Nutshell

Established in 2018, Foldink is a life science startup based in Armenia and United States of America. Being built around the concept of three-dimensional bioprinting, Foldink specializes in tissue engineering, a technology which allows to create living tissues in laboratory conditions. Foldink brings to the front, the consolidated efforts of different progressive and visionary specialists with medical, biotechnological, engineering, scientific and pharmaceutical backgrounds. Foldink envisions developing a technology which can save lives, through providing alternative solutions for transplantation, as well as through creating models for testing of cutting-edge newly developed medications. Towards this goal, Foldink produces and offers to customers specially developed bioinks (biomaterials for bioprinting) and customizable hardware – bioprinters. It caters to biomedical scientists and biotechnological research centers, as well as enthusiastic scientists who seek different novel applications for 3D bioprinting technology.

Brains behind this

The brainchild of three young researchers and physicians, Foldink has consolidated the efforts of different progressive and visionary specialists with medical, biotechnological, engineering, scientific and pharmaceutical backgrounds.

The Before and The After

Bioprinting is a revolutionary technology that can enable a multitude of opportunities for the contemporary medicine. On one hand, it can allow the creation of living tissue constructs (or even organs in the future) that can serve as grafts superior to transplants in terms of risk; on the other hand – such tissues can also serve as models for drug testing. Thus, it is a very promising approach for development of various personalized medical treatment solutions. However, in order to reach to a level of widespread clinical applications, bioprinting, as a field, needs further R&D. This is quite challenging, as the currently available bioprinting solutions in the world do not fully meet the need of the biomedical scientists engaged in this field. Foldink aims to solve this problem, by providing highly specific high-quality bio-ink formulations and customizable 3D bioprinters with modular structure.

Technology

Considering superior quality-to-price ratio, lack of batch-to-batch variability, as well as high level of personalization, Foldink succeeds to address the challenges faced by scientists in their efforts to work with the novel technology of bioprinting. The company differs from its competitors by its approach to the offered products, ensuring that each product is specifically designed to address the specific needs of each customer and partner. While competitors aspire to create universal solutions, Foldink acknowledges that bioprinting has no one-fits-all solution, and this fact has served as a starting point to build its business mode. Before any sale, Foldink specialists consult each customer in a comprehensive fashion, to determine the specific needs and necessities regarding their specific field of study. Subsequently, this allows for further customizing, tailoring and adapting the solutions accordingly. Last but not least, all the products and solutions delivered by Foldink are built around the company’s strong vision of making bioprinting more available for the world.

AM Ventures Asks

Along with the Technological innovations, it is important for start-ups to understand how their innovation is addressing the world’s biggest Environmental, Social and Governance Challenges. AM Ventures, our co-collaborator for this AM start-up series, poses a question to Foldink on their contribution to the world’s biggest ESG challenges.

Bio-printed constructs can serve as models for testing novel drugs and medications. This can significantly decrease the number of animals, as well as human volunteers necessary for different stages of drug testing. Bioprinting can also be used in biotechnology, agriculture and even food industry, thus further minimizing the carbon footprint of the entity utilizing this technology.

Funding Facts

Foldink has raised somewhere around $200K, through angel investments, as well as entrepreneurship and scientific grants and awards. The Company is about to close the Seed stage and enter into Series A.

Milestones

• 2018 first half – first prototype of Foldink bioprinter and bioinks
• 2018 second half – formation of the start-up based on a research project
• 2019 first half – participation in incubators and international scientific trainings
• 2019 second half – second prototype of bioprinters, winning first grant, incorporation as a company in Armenia (Foldink LLC)
• 2020 first half – first investment
• 2020 second half – product development, MVP of bioprinter
• 2021 first half – of MVP of bioinks, several entrepreneurship and research grants, establishment of collaborations
• 2021 second half – obtaining new equipment, formation of advisory board
• 2022 first half – first sales of bioinks in Armenia, incorporation in USA (Foldink Corp.)
• 2022 second half – first international sales of bioinks

They seek:

Funding and advisors

Contact Details
https://foldink.bio/contact/

Disclaimer: This AM Chronicle Startup series is powered by AM Ventures and companies mentioned in the series are not necessarily funded or supported by AM Ventures directly, unless otherwise mentioned.

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