Deep Tech Talk: An Interview with DiaMonTech AG

DiaMonTech AG! This is our Deep Tech Star 2024 in our new category “Photonics and Quantum Technologies”! Congratulations to them!

The Berlin-based company DiaMonTech has developed a device that measures blood glucose levels non-invasively. Their product D-Pocket uses mid-infrared laser technology to stimulate glucose molecules in the skin. As one of 15 finalists, DiaMonTech was honoured with the Deep Tech Award 2024 by our jury on 11 July 2024. Find out more about DiaMonTech in our interview!

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?
We love Berlin as a location and the Deep Tech Award creates a stage on which start-ups can showcase themselves. Our participation gives us the opportunity to present our vision and our previous successes in clinical trials to a broad audience of experts, investors, and innovators. As a Berlin startup, we are particularly pleased to be able to participate in this important local award!

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?
Of course, we are not entirely objective, but we believe that Berlin is the only cosmopolitan city in Germany. This starts with start-up financing, which is reflected in the city’s attractiveness for domestic and foreign professionals, and the high standard of its universities. Technology clusters such as Adlershof support the development of deep-tech companies even more and the cooperation between Berlin’s founders helps tremendously.

Your category photonics and quantum technologies was opened for the first time in this year’s Deep Tech Award. Why do you think this is important for the photonics and quantum technology scene?
Photonics and quantum technology are two key topics of the future and Berlin has some exciting start-ups in the field. A high-profile stage like the Deep Tech Award creates awareness in the field and hopefully inspires more potential founders to follow their dream.

Let’s shift the perspective and talk about you a little more. You applied with your D-Pocket. Please give us a little glimpse into your founding story and your key motivation to build this product.
Our founders Thorsten and Werner met by chance when Thorsten (after a successful exit) wanted to change his sugar-heavy lifestyle but didn’t want to have to prick his finger all the time. He was looking for a non-invasive method and came across a publication by Werner. Werner had developed a non-invasive method at the time, but despaired when he tried to start a company out of university.

The two met for the first time at the end of 2014, immediately hit it off, and founded DiaMonTech in Berlin at the beginning of 2015.

Our main motivation is that blood glucose monitoring for people with diabetes has hardly developed at all in 30 years: You prick your finger and put a small amount of blood from your finger onto a test strip to determine the glucose concentration in your blood. Our approach is non-invasive and therefore revolutionary: users can determine their blood glucose levels painlessly, effortlessly, and precisely.

The photothermal detection method was developed and patented by our Chief Science Officer (CSO) and co-founder Prof. Dr. Werner Mäntele at Goethe University in Frankfurt. Convinced that this technology could improve blood glucose monitoring and the lives of millions of people with diabetes, he founded DiaMonTech in 2015 together with our CEO Thorsten Lubinski.

Why do you think DiaMonTechAG made the finalists list and why is it Deep Tech?
Diabetes is a global challenge: more than 530 million people worldwide live with this disease. Several major players are working on a non-invasive solution, and yet we are the first company to prove in clinical trials that our non-invasive technology works.

We use a relatively new type of laser called a quantum cascade laser (QCL) that emits mid-infrared light. We are in the hardware and medtech space and this is the first time we are using a QCL in a mass application. We are at the cutting edge of known science and implementing many things for the first time worldwide, such as designing a QCL optimized for glucose detection, preparing for mass production of QCLs or developing fast, high-resolution temperature sensors.

What is the key technological innovation within your D-Pocket and why does it advance the state of the art?
Our patented technology is called “photothermal spectroscopy” and is completely new in the context of blood glucose measurement. The principle is based on the absorption of light by the substance to be measured. Molecules such as glucose have very specific absorption bands in the mid-infrared range, which enable very specific excitation. This excitation leads to a very small but detectable increase in temperature, which makes it possible to determine the concentration. This has never been tried/implemented before.

The world-leading research on this technology was led by one of our co-founders, Prof. Dr. Werner Mäntele, at the Goethe University Frankfurt. With the support of investors such as Samsung and Medtronic (a global medical technology company), our multi-skilled team is now turning this technology into a wearable medical product, the D-Pocket.

Our technology is protected by over 100 patents, of which more than 45 patents have already been granted in all relevant regions of the world (Europe, USA, China, Korea, Japan, …).

What was the biggest obstacle in your developing process? How did you overcome it?
Our biggest challenge is that there are many approaches to non-invasive blood glucose monitoring that do not work and there is always a lot of skepticism in the market when a new technology is developed. Only after successfully conducting two clinical studies that proved our accuracy were we able to overcome this scepticism and focus on miniaturizing our technology: from our shoebox-sized prototype to a handheld device and then in the future as part of a wearable solution. We have learned how important it is to have a resilient and interdisciplinary team that works together across the boundaries of science, technology and business to overcome these challenges.

How do you assess the market potential for your D-Pocket and DiaMonTech, and what strategies are you employing to capture market share?
More than 530 million people worldwide live with diabetes. The market for test strips for blood glucose monitoring alone is worth more than USD 16 billion. Our technology is non-invasive and so far the only solution that delivers comparable results to (minimally) invasive blood glucose testing in clinical studies. When blood glucose monitoring is so easy and painless, users measure more frequently, and develop a better awareness of their blood glucose, which can lead to a healthier lifestyle.

We have a newsletter with over 20,000 subscribers interested in the market launch of the D-Pocket and an agreement with international distributors for the distribution of 100,000 devices per year.

We are also planning two pilot projects with German health insurance companies (one private and one public) to equip their policyholders with our device.

What role does ongoing research and development play in your project, and how are you leveraging academic or industrial partnerships?
Research and development plays a major role in our project, as we continuously incorporate new findings into our product development. We use academic and industrial partnerships to better understand and optimize our technology. For the development of our “Glucose QCL”, for example, we worked with a Berlin simulation office to create optical simulations for our approach. The QCL was then developed in collaboration with a German laser manufacturer. For production, we are working with a German contract manufacturer and we are currently discussing a joint project with a university to optimize our temperature sensor.

As our technology originated from university research, our academic links are still very strong today. Prof. Dr. Mäntele is present at numerous conferences, and symposia, and DiaMonTech is a member of the photonics associations EPIC and Optica.

What are the main challenges you anticipate in scaling up and commercializing your technology, and how do you plan to address them?
The demand for our product is very high and we will (want to) produce large quantities (100,000+ units) in a short time. The biggest challenge is the mass production of our QCL, as these lasers are usually only produced in small quantities ( < 1,000 units per year). We work together with external partners who are specialists in mass production and are also provided with experts by our investors (Samsung, Medtronic, Macnica, …) so that the development of production capacities can take place as painlessly as possible.

What do you wish for in our technological or digital future?
Germany is ideally placed to develop data-driven future technologies that will improve our healthcare system and, not least, bring progress for patients. We would like to see more government funding and less bureaucracy in applying for it: despite considerable funding (e.g. Zukunftsfond), start-ups have to go through a lot of administrative work when applying for and settling grants.

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.
We always like to give this advice:

1. Focus on innovation and big impact: if you’re already spending a lot of hours on your startup, then tackle a big problem. It’s more fun in the end!
2. Build a community early on: Get to know your customers even before the product is ready, build a community and actively exchange ideas with industry experts, potential cooperation partners and other startups. Building a strong network within your own ecosystem makes your product better and can provide valuable insights, partnerships and opportunities for collaboration.
3. Get used to presenting your story: Practice makes perfect! Apply to all the awards that make sense for you and use the different stages. Get feedback and keep adapting your presentation. Create a compelling and understandable pitch that effectively communicates the problem you are solving, the uniqueness of your solution and the market opportunity.
4. Don’t listen to advice! Listen to everything, but then decide for yourself whether the tips are right for you. Nobody knows your startup better than you!

Thank you so much for all your fascinating insights!