Thaddeus Medical Systems, a Medical Alley based smart packing company for temperature-sensitive healthcare products, was selected from among hundreds of companies to participate in the Maersk Venture Programme in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Maersk, the largest container shipping company in the world, is seeking innovative logistics startups that could become strategic partners and leverage their global scale. After reviewing hundreds of applications, Thaddeus Medical Systems was selected to participate because they have developed a highly efficient temperature sensitive shipping solution to address the $35 billion per year in waste of medical products owing to poor temperature management.
Dr. Steve Scully, formerly a research fellow at Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic recognized these losses were not tolerable and set out to engineer a smart, all-in-one IoT packaging solution that would ensure quality shipment, provide real-time alerts, and automate the labor-intensive receiving and documentation process for shipment end-users. This caught the attention of Maersk throughout the interview and selection process.
As one of the only pre-revenue companies participating in the Maersk Venture Programme, Thaddeus had a great, and at times, humbling, experience. CEO, Ilya Preston remarked, “We learned that like-minded early-stage companies are thriving all over the world – from Portugal, to Israel – and that globalization is driving innovative solutions to similar types of problems.” Key takeaways included the importance of cargo security, the importance of products that are market agnostic, and that many of the same problems experienced in medical products also occur with food, opening potential new opportunities.
What’s next for Thaddeus Medical Systems? They are finalizing their product development – hardware and software – raising capital and working beta partnerships across the Midwest. They are looking for additional beta partners to continue optimizing the product offering.
Mr. Preston stated, “Minnesota’s Medical Alley is widely renowned as the home of medicine and several of our target customer segments align perfectly with what Minnesota has to offer. From laboratories and hospital systems, to pharmaceutical Companies of all stages, these organizations’ leadership teams all face common challenges in maintaining the integrity of their products and specimens – effectively their brand – while controlling supply chain costs and streamlining processes.”
