Page 16 - Buy Russia - bne IntelliNews monthly magazine April 2017

16 I Companies & Markets bne April 2017
launch Reflex to track and analyse physiotherapy exercises after a knee injury. Moldoveanu admits that he abandoned his own physiotherapy regime after a few weeks - a decision that later led to him needing surgery. He later discovered this is a common problem, and cites research by a US insurance company that found 70% of people who do physiotherapy never finish their programmes; 50% of these get injured again within the next two to three years, and of these around half need surgery.
“Because of my experience, I saw a problem. I started to think about why I couldn’t finish my physio. I usually think like this; I like to find problems and think about solutions to them,” he says. He believes part of the problem was the lack of a concrete
“We see a lot of potential in the area of hardware”
measure of his progress. In addition, while many patients prefer to complete their physiotherapy at home, they usually lack motivation when they aren’t monitored.
Moldoveanu and his colleagues used state of the art motion detection technology to develop bands that are placed around the injured joint, with sensors that connect to each other to record each movement as it happens. An algorithm developed by the team shows whether movements are done correctly, and this information is relayed to the physiotherapist. If the patient is doing the movement wrongly, a shadow appears
on their screen to show how their movement differs from the correct movement.
While there are other wearables using sensors on the market, this is the only product where the sensors connect to each other, providing a visualisation of the movement. The only other place this technology is used is in motion visualisation for Hollywood movies, according to Moldoveanu.
The technology isn’t intended to replace physiotherapists - the device is only available through clinics – but Moldoveanu says it is particularly useful for people working remotely on their recovery. “We know tele-rehabilitation will increase and in Europe a lot of money is being invested to decrease the costs of providing medical services to people staying at home so they don’t have to come into a big hub like a hospital,” he explains. “The European Commission is very committed to this.”
The company also reports a lot of interest from insurance companies who want to check their customers finish their physiotherapy, and might pay for the devices in future.
Another serial entrepreneur that has struck out into a new direction with his hardware product is Cezar Nourescu, creator of silo monitoring technology Silometer. Nourescu says he has “been in the IT industry since eighth grade”, helping
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out at his father’s small IT business near Bucharest. His early career spanned all aspects of the IT sector, before he and his brother founded their own company creating custom software for medium-sized companies. Their foray into developing their own online school management system became their “first big failure” according to Nourescu, as they were unable to make headway against the big players that inevitably won government contracts in Romania.
Undaunted, they went on to launch a land management app for farmers, one of whom mentioned that he wished they would develop an app for temperature monitoring in grain silos - and Silometer was born.
Typically multiple sensors are hung from the roofs of silos to measure the temperature at different depths. Readings need to be recorded and compared over time to check for significant increases in temperature that can be a sign of fermentation, but doing this on a large farm can be half a day’s work for one person.
The firm’s technology connects to sensors to collate readings and produce a 3D view of temperatures at different points in each silo. It also measures the temperature outside the silo, and can be used to turn ventilators on and off remotely. More functions are still being added.
Dirty hands
Silometer moved quickly; their first prototype was ready
in April 2016 and they are already working with their first customers while they work to perfect the product. They were voted start-up of the year by the Employers Association of the Software and Services Industry (ANIS) in 2016.
While their background is in software, Nourescu says his team was excited about moving into hardware as well. “The team don’t only work to have a job. They are extremely smart and want to learn something new every day. Doing something new is the heartbeat of the project,” he says, adding that “getting our hands dirty is a cool thing”.
This was literally the case for Silometer as they went out into the farms to fit their systems, but other developers have similar feelings about the switch to hardware. Some have benefitted from team members with experience in the area. For example, Moldoveanu says his co-founder Andrei Kluger “is a genius in building stuff, especially hardware”, having previously designed bomb detection robots to secure Romania’s borders.
Indeed, the availability of great talent in Romania is one of the factors cited by all three founders. “You get access to a lot of quality people that are optimists and are excited to work with you. They really care about what you are building and would love to join your team even though you cannot pay as much as a big company,” says Moldoveanu.
“There are a lot of very good tech guys here and if you have an appealing project and a good offer you can find the right