Eva, the emerging company founded by the Mexican Julián Ríos, will seek to raise a third round of investment of 10 million dollars at the end of 2021, to continue its expansion in Mexico and enter Latin America.
Brazil, the largest economy in the region, is in the sights of the entrepreneur to offer the breast cancer detection service without pain and without radiation in less than 10 minutes.
Ríos, who studied physical engineering at Tecnológico de Monterrey, created a bra in 2016 that allowed the detection of abnormalities related to breast cancer. Since then, the entrepreneur has perfected a business model around his invention to offer a timely and accessible detection service for the disease.
“Eva’s mission has been very clear: how do we prevent more women from reaching a late diagnosis,” explains Ríos, CEO of Eva.
Worldwide, there are 458,000 deaths from breast cancer each year. Among malignant tumors, this is the leading cause of death in women, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
During the last year and a half, the entrepreneur has opened clinics that use infrared thermography to record radiated body heat associated with possible abnormalities. The exams, auxiliary for the detection of breast cancer, have a cost of 400 pesos and the results are sent by WhatsApp or email within a maximum of 48 hours after having performed the exam. They are accompanied by a call from a radiologist who provides follow-up and help with interpretation.
After a first experience, the entrepreneur affirms that more than 30% of the patients join his membership, with which they have access to a more complete health plan for an annual cost of 1,188 pesos.
With this business model, Eva has managed to attract investors such as Kaszek Ventures, which joined in her last investment round, where she raised around 3 million dollars, bringing the total fundraising to a little more than 14 million dollars. dollars in the last five years of the company’s history.
Ríos recognizes that a key point in attracting investors to the project has been the approvals received from authorities such as the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Federal Commission for Protection against Health Risks (Cofepris).
“It’s important for fundraising to have approvals. You can’t always be in the lab creating technology. You must go to the market and prove that your hypotheses are correct. The approvals (from the FDA and Cofepris) have been key to lifting the last rounds ”, explains the entrepreneur.
Enzo Cavalie, founder of Startupeable -a website in Spanish with educational resources to start, scale and raise Venture Capital- comments that regulations have limited the growth of HealthTech in Latin America.
“When you’re in regulated industries like healthcare and education it’s not that easy,” says Cavalie. “Authorization favors those who have it, it reduces competition in a sector. When you get to be regulated you are already at another level ”, he adds.
Eva’s expansion in Mexico
Mexico is one of the countries with the highest mortality rate from breast cancer in the Latin American region. In 2019, for every 100,000 women aged 20 years or older, 35.24 new cases of breast cancer were reported, according to statistics from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography.
The first Eva Center opened in May 2019, in Puebla, and since then Ríos has opened eleven more, in Monterrey, Mexico City and the State of Mexico.
Now, the plan is to close 2021 with 23 centers to take the exam and reach more than 30,000 women in the country. More clinics both in new markets, for example, Jalisco; as in those in which the company already has operations, for example, Monterrey and Mexico City.
