Munich Startup: Who are you and what do you do? Please introduce yourselves!
Kranus Health: The people behind Kranus Health are Jens (34), Thilo (34) and Nikolay (28). We’re an experienced founding team and previously worked in different management positions at McKinsey, Palantir, Tourlane, Celonis and Amazon. Together, we’ve made it our goal to bring the neglected topic of men’s health to a new level with the help of digital treatment.
Munich Startup: What problem does your startup solve?
Kranus Health: Erectile dysfunction is still very much taboo. The men affected by it suffer from a great deal of psychological stress and don’t receive much support from those around them. And the fact that it’s such a taboo is why many people are unfortunately unaware of how common the ailment is. In Germany alone, it affects six million men and one in three men over 50 years of age.
Although the guidelines prescribe causal treatment of the ailment, the standard treatment these days is to only treat the symptoms with drugs like Sildenafil (such as Viagra). Moreover, drugs can lead to side effects, such as headaches, and many patients are not reimbursed for them.
With Kranus Edera, we’re closing an important treatment gap and are offering digital coaching as causal treatment for erectile dysfunction as a CE-certified medical product. The digital health app is the first to give affected men a sustainable solution for this widespread ailment in the form of multimodal treatment with elements such as physiotherapeutic pelvic floor exercises, cardio training and awareness and sexual therapy exercises.
Kranus Health wants to “increase awareness about men’s health”
Munich Startup: But that’s nothing out of the box!
Kranus Health: In the field of men’s health, there’s unfortunately still too little innovation and too few dedicated companies. Our goal with Kranus Health is to break taboos and to increase awareness about the important topic of men’s health.
Our digital health app in the field of erectile dysfunction is just the beginning. Although there are many scientific publications on the individual elements, such as physiotherapeutic pelvic floor exercises, doctors simply don’t have the time to treat erectile dysfunction with holistic, causal treatment. This is exactly where our digital health app comes in.
Munich Startup: What have been your three biggest challenges so far?
Kranus Health: Regulatory procedures, such as the approval of a certified medical product, are definitely a very big challenge for startups in healthcare. Particularly the transition to new European standards (MDR) is already placing very high demands on companies.
Munich Startup: Where would you like to be in one year, and where in five years?
Kranus Health: This year, Kranus will be offering Edera as a reimbursable medical product that is the first to provide a causal treatment alternative for the common ailment of erectile dysfunction, and we want to reach as many patients as possible with it in Germany. In five years, Kranus will have a global reach and offer numerous, vertically integrated solutions in the field of men’s health.
Strong healthtech network in Munich
Munich Startup: What do you think about Munich as a startup location?
Kranus Health: We founded Kranus Health during the pandemic and relied on remote working from the beginning. Our hubs are in both Munich and Berlin, which gives us access to a large talent pool.
A lot has happened in Munich as a startup city in recent years, and there’s now a good network of strong startups in healthcare in particular, with companies such as Kaia Health, Temedica and Avi Medical. And in addition to the many investors in Munich, it’s also home to offices of the major tech players like Google, Apple, Amazon and Microsoft.
Munich Startup: Quick exit or staying power?Kranus Health: Our most important goal is to turn our vision into reality, which means reaching as many men as possible worldwide and helping them live longer and better lives by providing access to cutting-edge medical care. So in our minds, an exit is not currently of priority.