Deep Tech Talk: An Interview with SAFIA Technologies GmbH

Our Deep Tech Start 2024 in the category Social & Sustainable Impact is: SAFIA Technologies! Congratulations to them.

SAFIA Technologies GmbH specialises in particle-based rapid test methods for the detection of contaminants in food. Its particular focus is on mycotoxins. As one of our 15 finalists, we interviewed SAFIA Technologies. On 11 July 2024, they were named the Deep Tech Award Winner 2024. Read more about SAFIA’s work and mission now!

Congratulations you are one of the finalists of the 9th Deep Tech Award! What does the Deep Tech Award mean to you and what was the motivation behind your application?
Thank you very much! We are delighted to have been nominated and recognized by the Deep Tech Awards jury. Our motivation for applying was the desire to represent the diversity of Berlin’s startup landscape. Startups in Berlin are often primarily associated with marketing or FinTech, but the city offers much more. With our participation, we wanted to illustrate how startups like us and our fellow finalists can improve the world with technical innovation. The Deep Tech Award offers us an excellent platform to get this message across.

Berlin is said to be one of the few German hubs for technological innovation. How do you experience the local tech infrastructure and how is it influenced by the Deep Tech Award?
We find the local infrastructure in Berlin to be excellent. Our company headquarters in Adlershof, one of the largest science parks in Europe, gives us access to a unique environment and an excellent network. The proximity to Humboldt University and technological institutes such as the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM) enables us to enter into valuable collaborations. These strategic partnerships are crucial for the development and implementation of cutting-edge technologies.

Let’s shift the perspective and talk about you a little more. You applied with your SAFIA. Please give us a little glimpse into your founding story and your key motivation to build this product.
We are a spin-off of the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM). The basic technology behind SAFIA was developed by Peter Carl during his doctoral thesis, originally for monitoring wastewater. After his PhD, Peter decided to further develop this technology together with Timm Schwaar and Nick Gundermann to develop a rapid test for food monitoring. Our aim was to create a cost-effective and simple method for detecting contaminants (mold toxins) in food. With the support of EXIST funding from the BMWK, we were able to bring our product to market maturity. About a year ago, we launched our first product on the market, which detects the six most important mold toxins in food. With this product, we were able to win our first important customers, including the German Armed Forces, which uses our technology to ensure the safety of soldiers on deployment abroad. We are also working with the Institute for Medical Diagnostics (IMD) Berlin to develop efficient diagnostics for mold toxins in order to detect poisoning, which was previously not easily possible.
At the beginning of this year, we also entered into a sales cooperation with the company Sysmex to offer our solution worldwide.

Why do you think SAFIA Technologies made the finalists list and why is it Deep Tech?
We believe that SAFIA Technologies made it to the finalist list because we have demonstrated how our technology creates sustainable value by ensuring food safety and healthcare in underserved communities. SAFIA also successfully demonstrates how to transfer academic research into a product that can help many people.
SAFIA is considered deep tech because it revolutionizes rapid testing technology by overcoming the limitation of conventional tests and enabling the simultaneous analysis of multiple parameters, providing fast and comprehensive information.

What is the key technological innovation within your SAFIA and why does it advance the state of the art?
SAFIA represents a decisive advancement in rapid test technology. During the corona pandemic, we have all experienced the benefits of such tests, especially in terms of speed and user-friendliness. However, the main disadvantage of conventional rapid tests is their limitation of only being able to detect individual parameters, which severely limits the information obtained. SAFIA overcomes this key weakness by using the revolutionary SAFIA technology, which enables the simultaneous analysis of multiple parameters, providing comprehensive information quickly and efficiently.

What was the biggest obstacle in your developing process? How did you overcome it?
One of our biggest challenges was to develop test kits that work reliably in different foods as well as in human samples such as urine and blood plasma. The task was to find the optimal composition for our kits, which is particularly difficult with complex food samples such as spices. We had to accept several setbacks, as in such cases often only experimental trial and error helps. After intensive research and development, we finally succeeded in finding a composition that delivers reliable results for almost all samples tested.

How do you measure the social and environmental impact of your SAFIA, and what results have you seen so far?
As a young start-up, we face the challenge of directly measuring the social and environmental impact of our product. We are aware of this responsibility and strive to develop and use robust methods to assess these impacts in the future. Our aim is not only to demonstrate the effectiveness of our technology, but also to make its positive impact on society and the environment transparent and measurable.

How do you engage with local communities or stakeholders to ensure your technology meets their needs and benefits them directly?
We work closely with our customers to ensure that our innovations are directly tailored to their needs. Through regular exchanges with stakeholders, we continuously adapt our kits to new toxicological findings and regulatory requirements.

What strategies do you have in place to scale technology and replicate its success in different regions or contexts?
In order to offer our technology worldwide, we rely on a strategic distribution partnership with Sysmex to utilize their global distribution network and offer our kits worldwide.
In addition, we are developing new detection methods in cooperation with research institutes such as BAM. For example, we are planning to enter the field of environmental monitoring in order to be able to monitor water treatment more effectively. Allergen diagnostics is also a promising area of application, and we are already in intensive discussions with research groups to address this topic.

What are your long-term goals for SAFIA Technologies, and how do you plan to sustain its impact over time?
Our long-term goals for SAFIA Technologies are to establish and expand our technology in various areas. We want to use our products to create a global measurement infrastructure that enables people around the world to be protected from life-threatening contamination in food. We want to continuously develop and improve our products based on the latest scientific findings and customer needs.

What do you wish for in our technological or digital future?
Our wish for the future is that, in addition to the further development of impressive new AI systems, the importance of the technologies needed to generate data is not lost sight of. Such revolutionary technologies are essential, as they provide the necessary data that artificial intelligence needs to learn and work effectively. We hope that the development of these fundamental technologies will continue to be intensively promoted in order to ensure a robust basis for technological progress.

What advice would you like to pass to young entrepreneurs and tech innovators who want to reach their goals and maybe also want to take part in the Deep Tech Award 2025? Since out of 100 applicants you made it into the finalists, we figure you have some real pro-tips here.
Persevere and learn from every feedback and/or setback. We have already taken part in several competitions and have not always won awards. But every piece of feedback from experts has been valuable in helping us to develop and get to where we are today. This also applies when dealing with customers: Take feedback or criticism on the idea or later on the product seriously and use it as an opportunity to adapt your solutions so that they meet the customer’s needs even better. Perseverance and the ability to respond constructively to feedback are crucial for success in the tech industry.

Thank you so much for all your fascinating insights!