Beyond Next Ventures and DENSO Establish a New Company "OPExPARK" for Medical IoT

-- Realizing a society where people can have the best medical care --

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Sep 06, 2019, 14:34 ET

KARIYA, Japan, Sept. 6, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Beyond Next Ventures Inc. and DENSO Corporation today announced that they have established OPExPARK Inc., a carve-out^*1 to develop the businesses utilizing OPeLiNK®^*2. OPExPARK will develop and sell systems that integrate information from surgery equipment, produce educational content for physicians, and offer distribution services.

Beyond Next Ventures, which provides incubation funding for technology startups mainly in life sciences, develops commercialization acceleration program called BRAVE. This is a commercialization support program for several months focusing on technology seeds at universities and other organizations. It prepares business strategies and business plans in the initial phase and offers opportunities to strengthen the management team and tap financial resources and networks. OPExPARK is a carve-out from the first company that utilized this program.

With support from AMED and in cooperation with five universities and 11 companies, DENSO developed OPeLiNK®, an information platform for distributing data gathered from surgical equipment. In function, OPeLiNK uses visualizations of the data taken from the equipment to share information that was previously difficult to track and communicate widely among medical teams. OPeLiNK® has been installed at Hiroshima University Hospital, Shinshu University Hospital, and Tokyo Women's Medical University Hospital.

The new company will develop and sell systems that integrate information from surgery equipment by utilizing OPeLiNK®, produce educational content for learning about the latest surgery at any time and anywhere based on the data extracted from the systems, and offer services and educational content for physicians around the world. The business will start in October.

^*1 Carve-out
A carve-out is a venture company established by carving out part of a business to utilize managerial resources such as funding and human resources from external partners to accelerate growth.

^*2 OPeLiNK® information platform
OPeLiNK® is an information platform that constantly provides data gathered from each equipment in the operating theater, which is conventionally handled individually, with data in a consistent format so that it can be used by any device. All equipment information and biometric information accumulated in OPeLiNK® is extracted, processed, and distributed to visualize the surgeon's judgment. This makes it possible to share complex tacit knowledge that can be acquired only in an operating theater, with physicians around the world. OpeLiNK® is a trademark of OPExPARK.

^*3 AMED
Abbreviation for the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development.

Profile of the new company

1. Name	OPExPARK Inc.
2. Commencement of business	October 2019
3. Location	TWIns Tokyo Women's Medical University Hospital, 8-1 Kawada-chou Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Japan
4. Capital	259.5 million yen
5. President	Yasunori Honda (physician and consultant)
6. Employees	7
7. Business description	Development and sales of systems that integrate information from surgery equipment Production and distribution of educational content for physicians

Profile of Beyond Next Ventures Inc.

1. Name	Beyond Next Ventures Inc.
2. Location	Nihonbashi Murohon Building 1, 1-4-3 Nihonbashi-honcho, Chuo-ku, Tokyo, Japan
3. President	Tsuyoshi Ito
4. Business description	Venture capital services (incubation funding for technology startups mainly in life sciences)
5. Assets under management	More than 10 billion yen

About Beyond Next Ventures Inc.
Beyond Next Ventures is a venture capital that specializes in incubation funding for technology startups mainly in life sciences. The company is certified as a business promoter of the Program for Creating STart-ups from Advanced Research and Technology (START) under the auspices of the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), as one of Venture Capital Firms to Partner in the NEDO Technology-based Startup Support Program under the auspices of the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), and as an ICT Innovation Creation Challenge Program (I-Challenge!) under the auspices of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC). Assets under management exceed 10 billion yen for the No. 1 and No. 2 funds.

About DENSO Corporation
DENSO is a $48.3 billion global mobility supplier that develops advanced technology and components for nearly every vehicle make and model on the road today. With manufacturing at its core, DENSO invests in its 211 facilities in 35 countries to produce thermal, powertrain, mobility, electrification, & electronic systems, to create jobs that directly change how the world moves. The company's 170,000+ employees are paving the way to a mobility future that improves lives, eliminates traffic accidents, and preserves the environment. Globally headquartered in Kariya, Japan, DENSO spent 9.3 percent of its global consolidated sales on research and development in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2019. For more information about global DENSO, visit https://www.denso.com/global

SOURCE DENSO