Date started: 2014
Website: www.momincubators.com
Twitter: @momincubators
Location: London

Founder of mOm, James Roberts has designed an inflatable, electronically controlled incubator designed to save the lives of premature babies born in areas without western incubators.

In the final year of his degree in product design and engineering, James was inspired by a documentary on the refugee crisis which mentioned the tragic issue of high mortality rates among pre-term births (western incubators being too expensive and difficult to use). He decided to see if that was a problem he could solve.

So far, it looks like it might be. He has designed a hugely innovative product which attracted Matthew Koory, with previous experience in med-tech startups, to come on board as a co-founder. After the product won the Dyson award in 2014 (James Dyson described it as having the potential to save thousands of lives) mOm was born. A £50,000 grant won in 2015 meant that they could develop prototypes, and the company is currently closing funding to be able to turn those into a medical grade product.

Of the one in ten babies that are born premature (according to the World Health Organisation), 75 per cent could be saved with inexpensive treatment like mOm.