Romanian startup .lumen awarded at global competition seeking innovative solutions for healthy ageing

.lumen, a Romanian startup that creates glasses for the blind, is one of the 21 winners of the inaugural round of Healthy Longevity Catalyst Awards, receiving up to EUR 50,000 seed funding.

The awards are part of the Healthy Longevity Global Competition - a multi-year international competition that rewards breakthrough innovations developed to support healthy ageing.

The Healthy Longevity Global Competition was founded by the US National Academy of Medicine and has been running for two years, targeting teams and individuals from diverse backgrounds, including science, medicine, technology, finance, and social sciences. The Competition includes a three-tiered structure of awards: a first phase of Catalyst Awards, a second phase Accelerator Award, and a third Grand Prize phase.

A total of 21 startups have received a Catalyst Award from EIT Health as part of the competition, with each receiving up to EUR 50,000 seed funding to advance their product or service. The startups are from Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, Romania, France, Switzerland, Sweden, Italy, Ireland, Estonia, Belgium, and Israel.

The Romanian winner, .lumen, produces glasses designed to help visually impaired people move around. Its solution uses artificial intelligence and robotics to replicate and build on the benefits of guide dogs.

Set up as a research project at the end of 2018, .lumen turned into a startup at the beginning of 2020. It was founded by Cornel Amariei together with Dr. Gabriel Chindris, a university professor in electronics, and Mihai Ivascu, the CEO & founder of M3 Holdings - Moneymailme, M3 Payments, and Modex.

“We are incredibly proud to be awarded the Health Longevity Catalyst Award by the National Academy of Medicine and EIT Health. As one of the rising innovation leaders for assistive technologies, we strive to see the lumen glasses empower as many blind individuals across the globe,” the Romanian startup said in a press release.

The complete list of winners is available here.

(Photo source: EIT Health)