Neolexon develops speech therapy apps. More than 50 insurance companies already reimburse the costs for the apps, which are approved medical products. The founders let us know about their medtech’s current situation.
Munich Startup: Who are you and what do you do? Please briefly introduce yourself and your product!
Neolexon: We develop medical apps for speech therapy. Patients who, for instance, lost their speech after a stroke or children with impaired speech development can practice on their own on tablets with our digital product. Our training program is customized to suit each individual patient by their attending speech therapist, making it most effective. Our apps are certified as medical products.
We are four founders: Dr. Hanna Jakob and Dr. Mona Späth studied speech therapy and earned their doctorates in Phonetics and Language Processing at the LMU in Munich. Swaroop Nunna und Jakob Pfab take care of technological development in the Neolexon founding team.
Specialist knowledge, standards and staying power
Munich Startup: But that’s nothing out of the box!
Neolexon: Our Neolexon apps are the first to offer fully individualized therapy on a tablet or smartphone. Other initial apps for speech therapy aren’t sufficiently adapted to each individual patient. Such fixed practice programs can quickly demand too little or too much from a patient. The practiced content should also be relevant to the patient’s personal everyday life, for example, an avid gardener would like to practice words like “daffodil” and “lawn mower.”
Munich Startup: What are the three main ingredients in your recipe for success?
Neolexon: In-depth specialist knowledge gained from our academic work and hands-on experience as therapists, the highest standards for our app in terms of user friendliness and lots of staying power for negotiating with insurance companies.
Insurance companies reimburse costs for the Neolexon app
Munich Startup: Now let’s get down to the nitty-gritty: How is business going?
Neolexon: Neolexon has been on the market since 2017 and has been very popular among therapists, hospitals and patients. In the spring of 2019, we were able to launch our second product, which focuses on preschool children with articulation disorders. Our apps are now reimbursed by more than 50 insurance companies that cover the costs for patients.
Munich Startup: What does Munich mean to you?
Neolexon: Munich has been our home for many years now and during that time, we have been able to establish an excellent professional network of supportive therapists and scholars. Various incubator and mentoring programs also have us excellently integrated in the startup network. Our office is located in Werk1. We also view the many outstanding degree programs at the Munich universities as an additional advantage for finding young and motivated employees.
Munich Startup: How will your startup become the next unicorn? Or will we be seeing you at an Epic Fail Night soon?
Neolexon: We’re working hard to establish ourselves as the standard in speech therapy practices and clinics and feel we have excellent prospects.
Munich Startup: Beer or Prosecco?
Neolexon: Beer! And a Spezi to make it through long days at work (a mixture of cola and orange soda).