Baltimore’s Sonavi Labs takes third place at Startup World Cup

In San Francisco earlier this month, a Baltimore-based startup bringing digital tools to the stethoscope took one of the top places at the Startup World Cup.

Sonavi Labs took third place at the competition’s finale event on May 17, which capped a series of events in nearly 40 countries.

Organized by Pegasus Tech Ventures, the event drew more than 1,400 applicants and convened winners of regional competitions from around the world. Sonavi Labs advanced to be among the 12 finalists after a pitch from CEO Ellington West earned top prize at the regional competition in Boston.

We are here in San Francisco and ready for the finals of the#StartupWorldCup. #RegionalChampions #SWC2019 pic.twitter.com/tpPP8PKvGr

— Sonavi Labs (@SonaviLabs) May 15, 2019

The company is preparing to launch a digital stethoscope. In the pitch, West said it can provide a tool for detecting lung diseases, especially in areas where there is a shortage of physicians to treat patients.

“What if anyone, anywhere, at any time, had the ability to diagnose a respiratory disease with the accuracy of a physician? Well, allow me to introduce you to Feelix,” West said, referring to the name of the stethoscope, which is designed with algorithms that provide noise cancellation, and the ability to automatically detect specific diseases.

The company’s roots are in Baltimore. It grew out of scientific research to re-engineer the stethoscope at Johns Hopkins University, and was an Accelerate Baltimore company in 2018. It’s since made a home at 1100 Wicomico, where Harbor Designs and Manufacturing is based along with a cluster of startups. Technical.ly Baltimore also tabbed the startup as one of 20 local startups to watch on our realLIST 2019.

Top prize at the Startup World Cup went to Vietnam-based AI logistics platform Abivin.