The University of Melbourne, Australia will provide pre-seed investment to support two innovative female-founded healthcare startups, innovative at-home pregnancy monitoring startup Kali Healthcare, and clinical trial participant recruitment startup Torch Recruit.

Kali Healthcare, co-founded by University of Melbourne Associate Professor Fiona Brownfoot, has developed a small wearable device and sensor patch that accurately picks up the baby’s heart rate, improving the ease and access to pregnancy monitoring for regional patients. Tragically, over 2000 Australian families are impacted by stillbirth each year, claiming the lives of 1 in every 130 pregnancies.

Kali Healthcare co-founders Dr Emerson Keenan and Professor Marimuthu Palaniswami said that with a $500,000 pre-seed investment from the University of Melbourne and ongoing support from development partners, the fetal heart rate monitoring technology will be accelerated into the pivotal clinical trial phase by next year.

On the other hand, a new clinical tool helping doctors automatically identify eligible patients for clinical trials and improve clinical trial participant diversity has been created by Torch Recruit, founded by University of Melbourne Associate Professor Jo-Anne Manski-Nankervis.

Western Health and the University have committed $250,000 each in pre-seed investment funding for business development and expansion of the network of general practices working with Torch Recruit.