ONAkids | Early Screening for Language Development Disorders
Are you seeking a new entrepreneurial adventure in health innovation with the opportunity to build a high-impact medtech spin-off?
ONAkids, project developed at the Brainlab Cognitive Neuroscience Research Group (Universitat de Barcelona) with the support of Fundació Bosch i Gimpera, is looking for an entrepreneurial profile with strong business acumen and founder experience to join the team.
As the Entrepreneur, you will be part of our venture-building journey, leading the business validation phase hand-in-hand with the scientific team. At the end of this process, if the business and the team are validated, the spin-off will be incorporatedand you will become the CEO & Co-Founder of a disruptive medical device company transforming neonatal health.
About ONAkids
Language delay affects 1 in 5 children and is associated with long-term difficulties in reading, attention, socialization and mental health. Early detection significantly improves outcomes but today, no neonatal screening tool reliably identifies this risk.
ONAkids has developed an EEG-based medical device that records newborns brain responses to speech sounds and, through cloud-based AI models, provides 80% prediction accuracy for language-development riskenabling early intervention within the first months of life.
The team vision is to position ONAkids as a universal newborn screening tool, comparable in simplicity and cost to current mandatory hearing tests.
Main project achivements so far:
- Validated AI algorithms reaching 80% accuracy.
- A protected database of 600 neonatal EEG recordings, with longitudinal follow-up available for approximately 200 cases.
- A dedicated prototype device designed for neonatal clinical use.
- Consistent competitive funding since 2021, securing a total of 400,000 including MICINN, AGAUR, Biocat and CRAASH.
Current Founding Team:
- Prof. Dr. Carles Escera
- Dr. José Valenzuela Ruiz
Your challenges as entrepreneur
The Entrepreneur will play a critical role in advancing ONAkids by bringing business leadership, regulatory awareness, and strategic execution to build a viable, clinically validated and scalable medical device company. Key challenges include:
- Defining the vision, financial model and business strategy for the future spin-off.
- Leading patient journey definition and selecting the beachhead market.
- Coordinating clinical validation, regulatory pathways (CE/MDR; FDA desirable) and market access.
- Securing the first clinical pilots and early adopters.
- Leading the first fundraising rounds (public and private).
- Managing day-to-day operations and executing the commercial roadmap.
The Offer
- Relevant equity as CEO and Co-Founder once the company is established.
- 6,000 stipend (3 monthly instalments of 2,000 each).
- Opportunity to access a participative loan of up to 50K to finance the first phases of the project.
- International exposure through The Collider ecosystem (4YFN, Mobile World Congress, corporate & investor networks).
- Access to a structured programme supported by mentors, specialists, healthcare experts, industry partners and investors.
- Coworking space in Barcelona (Tech Barcelona Pier 01).
- Backing from the Universitat de Barcelona, Fundació Bosch i Gimpera, and a highly respected scientific team.
This opportunity is for you If:
- You are an entrepreneur with experience founding or co-founding healthtech/medtech/digital health startups.
- Passionate about science-based innovation, child health and preventative care.
- Skilled in strategy, leadership, fundraising, and market access.
- Familiar with medical device development: clinical validation, regulation (MDR/CE), industrialization, go-to-market
- Experienced in securing public grants and private investment.
- A resilient, hands-on leader capable of bridging science, clinical practice and business.
- Eligible to work in Spain (passport or visa required).
- Fluent in English and Spanish; Catalan is a plus.
About the Programme
Founded in 2017, The Collider has supported more than 200 scientific projects, created 23 deep-tech spin-offs, and manages a portfolio valued at 112M, with a 77% survival rate.
Learn more about The Collider here.