The Background
In his early teens, Julian Rios Cantu saw his mother battle cancer. She underwent a double mastectomy. This dreary family experience set him to combat cancer and improve women’s health. About education, he studied at the International Baccalaureate. This exposed him to business management and core science courses.
Also, he got a full merit scholarship. This allowed him to study Physics Engineering at the Tecnologico de Monterrey. He later dropped out to journey into health tech.
The Launch;
Lopez Alvarez, a Mexican doctor, highlights a major healthcare barrier in the country. This is the lack of interaction between private and government-owned medical platforms. This leads to scattered electronic health data, which is difficult to access.
Julian observed this. He partnered with friends to improve interoperability and automation in the healthcare system. This birthed Eva Tech. The Mexican startup integrates healthtech in forming solutions for early breast cancer diagnosis. At the onset, production costs hampered Eva from scaling its products. But Julian manoeuvred this. He established a network of diagnostic booths for thermal-imaging tests.
Yet, these test centres became dead ends in the advent of Covid-19. Julian collaborated with healthcare centres and other clinical settings to digitise radiology processes. There are around 7,500 radiologists in Mexico. And this can’t serve 120 million people. So, Julian’s Eva utilises cloud technology to automate manual activities. This allows health specialists to serve patients on time.
Julian also takes Eva to remote communities plagued with substandard healthcare. He joined hands with non-profit establishments to provide imaging tests to the locals. He said, “people in underserved communities often wait one month or more to get results. We get this done within 48 hours.”
Beyond HealthTech
Juilian is on a personal mission to reduce the impact of cancer in people’s lives. Nonetheless, the young entrepreneur embarked on other career-changing activities. For instance, he’s a Thiel fellow, a Y Combinator alum, and a Silver and Bronze Cannes Lions winner. Julian has spoken at remarkable conferences, including TED and Ciudad de las Ideas.
He’s also the co-founder of Higia technologies which developed EVA.
Startup Funding
Julia’s Eva raised over $12 million. This came from investor partners like Kaszek Ventures and Y Combinator.
Startup