Job Description

ONAkids | Early Screening for Language Development Disorders

Are you seeking a new entrepreneurial adventure in health innovation with the opportunity to build a high-impact medtech spin-off?

ONAkids, project developed at the Brainlab Cognitive Neuroscience Research Group (Universitat de Barcelona) with the support of Fundació Bosch i Gimpera, is looking for an entrepreneurial profile with strong business acumen and founder experience to join the team.

As the Entrepreneur, you will be part of our venture-building journey, leading the business validation phase (3-4 months) hand-in-hand with the scientific team. At the end of this process, if the business and the team are validated, the spin-off will be incorporated and you will become the CEO & Co-Founder of a disruptive medical device company transforming neonatal health.

About ONAkids

Language delay affects 1 in 5 children and is associated with long-term difficulties in reading, attention, socialization and mental health. Early detection significantly improves outcomes but today, no neonatal screening tool reliably identifies this risk.

ONAkids has developed an EEG-based medical device that records newborns brain responses to speech sounds and, through cloud-based AI models, provides 80% prediction accuracy for language-development riskenabling early intervention within the first months of life.

The team vision is to position ONAkids as a universal newborn screening tool, comparable in simplicity and cost to current mandatory hearing tests.

Main project achivements so far:

• Validated AI algorithms reaching 80% accuracy.

• A protected database of 600 neonatal EEG recordings, with longitudinal follow-up available for approximately 200 cases.
• A dedicated prototype device designed for neonatal clinical use.
• Consistent competitive funding since 2021, securing a total of 400,000 including MICINN, AGAUR, Biocat and CRAASH.

Current Founding Team:

• Prof. Dr. Carles Escera

• Dr. José Valenzuela Ruiz

Your challenges as entrepreneur

The Entrepreneur will play a critical role in advancing ONAkids by bringing business leadership, regulatory awareness, and strategic execution to build a viable, clinically validated and scalable medical device company. Key challenges include:

• Defining the vision, financial model and business strategy for the future spin-off.
• Leading patient journey definition and selecting the beachhead market.
• Coordinating clinical validation, regulatory pathways ( CE/MDR; FDA desirable) and market access.

• Securing the first clinical pilots and early adopters.

• Leading the first fundraising rounds (public and private).

• Managing day-to-day operations and executing the commercial roadmap.

The Offer

• Relevant equity as CEO and Co-Founder once the company is established.
• 6,000€ stipend for the business validation process (3 monthly instalments of 2,000 each).
• Opportunity to access a participative loan of up to 50K to finance the first phases of the project.
• International exposure through The Collider ecosystem (4YFN, Mobile World Congress, corporate & investor networks).
• Access to a structured programme supported by mentors, specialists, healthcare experts, industry partners and investors.
• Coworking space in Barcelona (Tech Barcelona Pier 01).
• Backing from the Universitat de Barcelona, Fundació Bosch i Gimpera, and a highly respected scientific team.

This opportunity is for you If:

• You are an entrepreneur with experience founding or co-founding healthtech/medtech/digital health startups.
• Passionate about science-based innovation, child health and preventative care.

• Skilled in strategy, leadership, fundraising, and market access.

• Familiar with medical device development: clinical validation, regulation (MDR/CE), industrialization, go-to-market

• Experienced in securing public grants and private investment.

• A resilient, hands-on leader capable of bridging science, clinical practice and business.

• Eligible to work in Spain (passport or visa required).

• Fluent in English and Spanish; Catalan is a plus.

About the Programme

Founded in 2017, The Collider has supported more than 200 scientific projects, created 23 deep-tech spin-offs, and manages a portfolio valued at 112M, with a 77% survival rate.

Learn more about The Collider here.