STIL

Company profile

A new way to treat tremors
Founded in 2017 in Delft, the Netherlands, STIL is revolutionizing tremor treatment with its innovative, non-invasive medical device: the STIL Orthosis. Designed for people suffering from essential tremors, dystonia and Parkinson’s disease, STIL’s device can reduce forearm tremors by more than 80%, restoring people’s independence and enabling activities of daily life.

Clinically proven technology
In 2022, STIL reached a major clinical milestone, when it successfully completed its first clinical trial. This proved effectiveness for essential tremor patients with a forearm tremor. The study got international acknowledgement, when published in the renowned medical journal Movement Disorders. Several other clinical trials are in progress, expanding the medical claims to Parkinson's disease and other movement disorders.

Medical certification and patent protected
STIL holds an ISO 13485 certification, the most important quality management standard in the medical field. Our product is CE-certified and FDA-registered, allowing us to legally sell in all of the EU and US. We have multiple patents protecting the IP of the STIL Orthosis in key countries across the world.

Proven market traction
By 2024, the company had sold hundreds of devices and established key distribution contracts in the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, and Italy, expanding its reach across Europe. STIL received €3.6 million in funding from reputable investors, including Health Innovations, Rabobank, EIC Accelerator and the Brain Foundation Netherlands.

By investing in STIL, you are supporting a patented, clinically validated technology that addresses a major unmet medical need while offering strong financial growth potential.

Company Info 

How STIL makes a difference

Only 12% of tremor patient are satisfied with their care
Typically, tremor patients receive off-label medication, such as blood pressure relievers or anti-epileptic medication to reduce tremor. However, both have limited efficacy and severe side-effects. The last resort is brain surgery, though many patients are unwilling to undergo such an invasive procedure. This results in millions of patients not having a proper treatment option.

(below a spiral drawing of a tremor patient and a healthy subject)

Tremors also bring shame
Many people are ashamed of their tremors, resulting in social isolation. A mother not going out for dinner anymore. A teacher not daring to write on the white-board. Or a grandpa who cannot feed his grandchildren. The social aspect is most often just as debilitating as the functional limitations.

Impact of the orthosis
The STIL Orthosis can actually make a night and day difference for tremor patients. In the video below, one of our users highlights its benefits.

Reducing healthcare costs
The STIL Orthosis can be an alternative to expensive medication or surgery. With proper adoption in the regular care path, we estimate to be able to save €100 million per year in the EU alone. This is an incentive for Health Insurers to reimburse the product.

Products and Services

Business model

New innovation, existing sales network.
STIL brings a breakthrough innovation into an existing sales network. We sell (B2B) our products to specialized orthopedic and prosthetic (O&P) distributors. They have an established role in the healthcare supply chain, and work directly with hospitals and health insurers. With a prescription from a medical specialist, they take care of the paperwork needed for reimbursement, and provide the orthosis to the patient

Go-to-market strategy
To jumpstart each partnership, we initially provide distributors with potential customers (‘Leads”), which we obtain from online ads. This helps to understand the product, the target group, and drives initial direct-to-consumer sales. In parallel, when entering a new market, we together start working on reimbursement. With reimbursed care, STIL anticipates a sharp increase in sales volume and improved accessibility for patients. Recurring revenue is expected every 2-3 years, with new product(s) – some users even have two for both arms – being sold.

Key partnerships and rapid scalability
STIL’s distribution model is built for fast international growth. In less than 2 years, we launched in 4 countries. STIL has already made partnerships with renowned O&P distributors, such as Ottobock in Italy, Sanitätshaus STOLLE in Germany, and VIGO in Belgium. New partnerships in Europe and the US are already in the pipeline. The model supports rapid rollout across markets, while maintaining strong margins.

Market

Market size: Over 30 million people suffer from tremors worldwide, most being dissatisfied with current treatments. In the EU and US alone, STIL’s serviceable addressable market (SAM) is estimated at €3 billion. The market is also growing, driven by an aging population and rising incidence of neurological disorders. Parkinson’s cases have doubled in 25 years, and essential tremor affects nearly 6% of people over 65.

Competitive landscape: Traditional treatment options include medication, deep brain stimulation (DBS) and High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU). DBS is a costly (~€40,000) and invasive brain surgery, HIFU creates permanent brain damage, while pharmaceutical treatments often have limited effectiveness and side effects. Another wearable solution provides 50% tremor reduction, take almost an hour to have any effect, and can only be used for limited time. STIL’s orthosis is clinically proven to reduce forearm tremors over 80%, provides instant relief and is comfortable and easy to use, giving a clear advantage over current treatment options.

Barriers to entry: Entering this market requires clinical proof, regulatory approval, and deep technical know-how. STIL holds a first-mover advantage with CE marking, FDA registration, and patented technology. Competitors wishing to enter the same space face high development costs and long timelines – especially for clinical trials that take years to complete, and cannot be rushed, regardless of funding. Replicating STIL’s performance is not only technically difficult, but mostly time-intensive. With continuous innovation and launch of new products, STIL will keep this first-mover advantage.

Management

With this financing round, STIL aims to expand the management team with experienced commercial and operations director (CCO/COO) and medical or scientific director (CSO/CMO). This is needed to add commercial and clinical competence to the company, needed for scaling up sales, and facilitate obtaining healthcare reimbursement on an international level.

Board of advisors

Distribution of company shares

STIL Group B.V. is currently owned by 4 shareholders:

• Founders (71%): A significant portion of shares is held by the two founders, reinforcing their commitment to long-term success.
• Health Innovations (24%): Holds an equity stake following its investment in STIL’s seed round.
• Brain Foundation Netherlands (5%): Holds warrant shares that can be converted prior to an exit for ordinary shares. This foundation does not yet hold any actual shares, and thus has no voting rights.

Company structure

Where are you investing in?

Investors in this funding round will participate via Stichting Administratiekantoor (‘STAK’) STIL, a foundation set up to issue depository receipts linked to shares in STIL Group B.V. This structure allows investors to indirectly hold an economic interest in STIL Group B.V. In case of a maximum round, the share distribution will change according to the below stated image.

STIL Group B.V. oversees all strategic operations of its subsidiaries, and is 100% owner of STIL B.V., the entity where all operational activities and expenses are born (such as personnel, marketing, sales, R&D). Profits generated by STIL B.V. from product sales are reinvested into product development, market expansion, and operational growth. All immaterial capital expenses, such as patents, are born by STIL Group B.V.

Health Innovation SEED Fund III B.V. is governed by Venture Capiral firm Health Innovations. De Hersenstichting (Brain Foundation Netherlands) is a warrant holder of shares of STIL Group B.V.

Investment protection
The depository receipts of STAK STIL are linked to a preference share class of STIL Group B.V. that have several financial protection clauses. Most notably:

• Anti-dilution clause (broad-based weighted-average): if a future financing round occurs at a lower valuation, the conversion price of existing depository receipts will be adjusted using a broad-based weighted-average formula. This ensures that early investors are partially protected from dilution, maintaining a fair pro-rata share relative to the total fully diluted capital base.
• Liquidation preference: at moment of liquidation, such as an exit, the depository receipts are either sold at 1x the buy-value plus 10% accumulating dividend per year, or converted to ordinary shares and sold in a pro-rata distribution – whichever of the two has the highest return.

These clauses make sure Investors are fairly protected in down-rounds or when an exit is below expectations.

Use of funds

This funding round will be primarily used to scale up sales and operations to the EU and US, but also to launch a second generation of orthoses to the market. In general, it will be spent on the following key areas:

1. Market Expansion and Sales Acceleration – Contracting new distributors in Europe and North America, that are already in the pipeline. We need to expand the team with additional marketing and sales personnel to support such scaling efforts. In addition, we will invest more in marketing, both directly to potential users via online ads, and engaging with doctors via key congresses.
2. Product Development – Advancing next-generation orthoses, expanding beyond tremors in the forearm, and even to other movement disorders. Part of the funds will be used to strengthen the company's IP portfolio.
3. Clinical & Regulatory – Investing in several clinical trials to obtain strategical scientific and medical evidence to supports healthcare reimbursement claims in key countries. In addition, obtain regulatory approval for the UK, AU and JP.
4. Operational Scaling – Increasing manufacturing capacity, acquiring adequate operational software, including an ERP system, and streamlining logistics to meet growing product demand. Furthermore, we aim to reduce the cost price of the orthosis by 40-60%, by investing in injection molding production, optimization of materials and design, and supplier selection. We modelled two scenarios (high and low) to provide an additional insight in business strategy and allocating of budget

We modelled two scenarios (high and low) to provide an additional insight in business strategy and allocating of budget.

In the situation where capital is raised in between the two scenarios, the funds will be spent appropriately and accordingly on the 4 key-areas while keeping a healthy liquidity buffer for any setbacks.

Actual and planned figures

Get an insight into STIL's financial figures, such as turnover and earnings development. Learn more about the growth forecast.

Key milestones achieved

In June 2022, STIL was valued at €5 million post-money, based on a €250,000 investment for 5% equity. Since then, STIL has achieved various major milestones, including:

• CE and FDA registration STIL Orthosis.
• US patent granted.
• EIC Accelerator grant (€1.6 million + 3 million optional equity), for product development of the next generation orthosis. The equity could be used in follow-up financing rounds.
• Product-market fit: Product launch and revenue growth of 118% YoY.
• Successfully concluded a clinical study, later published in renowned medical journal Movement Disorders.
• Expansion of sales into Germany, Belgium and Italy via distribution partnerships

Pre-money calculation
By working backwards from a probable exit value, ensuring it aligns with an expected return on investment (ROI), the pre-money valuation can be estimated at the current financing round. When assuming no subsequent financing round, an IRR of 35%, an exit in 3-4 years, a revenue multiple of 4-5 on the expected revenue in 2027/2028, and a current financing round of €3 million, the conservative pre-money valuation ranges between €9.5-15.3 million.

With this financing round, STIL aims to become a profitable and self-sustaining company. Management expects this milestone could be reached as early as 2027, though 2028 is more likely. By that time, reimbursement coverage of the STIL Orthosis is expected to be secured in key markets, which is typically a major driver for stable revenue growth – and strategic acquisition potential.
 

Investment related documents

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