The company behind pioneering heart-monitoring technology praised by Barack Obama has landed in London as part of a scheme to nurture start-ups from Lebanon.
CardioDiagnostics, founded in the US in 2012 by Lebanese entrepreneur Ziad Sankari, is behind LifeSense, the world’s first cloud-based cardiac monitor – a wearable device that evaluates heart activity and can alert the hospital in case of emergency.
The cardiac-monitoring market is expected to be worth $23.3bn (£15.7bn) globally in 2017. At a White House event in May, Mr Obama told Mr Sankari: “You are the face of change. You have the power to drive creative solutions to our pressing challenges.”
CardioDiagnostics is one of 15 start-ups on a six-month programme in London called the UK-Lebanon Tech Hub – a joint scheme by the Government and Lebanon’s central bank, Banque du Liban.
The aim is for entrepreneurs to use the London programme to break into international markets before returning to grow their businesses in Lebanon, in contrast to previous generations which have tended to leave their conflict-strewn homeland. It is estimated around 90 per cent of Lebanese people live abroad.
Mr Sankari said: “We’ll be looking to develop partnerships with UK and European companies over the six-month programme and beyond.”
Other companies on the accelerator scheme include Band Industries, which makes an automatic guitar tuner, and Slighter, behind a cigarette lighter that helps smokers quit gradually.
