Business Showcase : Ravata

By @SimonCocking

Describe the company – the elevator pitch …

At Ravata we have developed a device that is enabling production-scale embryo engineering. Our technology will accelerate breakthroughs in medicine, biotechnology, regenerative medicine, and more.

How are you different?

The current standard for embryo engineering has existed since the 1970s. It is a slow, laborious, and costly process. Our device does away with this entire workflow and introduces a robust and automated approach.

Why will the company/product do well?

Absolutely. Ravata’s technology stands apart from the entire industry. Instead of the current standard of injecting gene-editing reagents like CRISPR into a cell, we use an electrical technique to facilitate delivery of these biological tools. This lets us not only be more efficient and gentle, but it also lets us achieve throughputs of over 100X.

Where are you based?

Currently we are based out of San Francisco, California.

When was the company launched?

Ravata was launched in August, 2016.

What have been your biggest wins to date?

Without a doubt, our biggest win to date was the first successful use of our device in transforming mouse embryos on January, 2017. While Ravata was launched a few months earlier, this was when our company was truly born as in one step we reached a functioning prototype and generated incredibly promising data.

What type of people (market segment) are you trying to attract to your product?

Our product is built for preclinical contract research organizations as well as researchers working with rodent models.

Tell us about your team?

My team consists of myself as CEO, Gurkern Sufi as COO and Dr. Yusha Bey as CSO. All three of us are alumni of the University of California at Davis and have worked together well before Ravata was launched. Gurkern and I lived in the same dormitories our freshman year, and Yusha served as my senior thesis advisor later in my college career. Our history has given us great chemistry and it is one of the reasons I attribute to how we went from concept to prototype in just 3 months.

What are your long-term plans for your product / company?

In the long term, I plan for Ravata to expand into engineering other organism’s embryos and even entirely different cell types.

What are your favourite tech gadgets?

I have only had a few chances to fool around with VR & AR but gadgets like the Oculus have quickly become my favourite pieces of tech. I also love playing with drones every chance I get.

What tech gadgets do you wish you could use to help you?

I wish there was some way to incorporate VR/AR more into my work. Creating a 3D CAD drawing I can walk through sounds like a lot more fun than just using my laptop.

Anything else you’d like to add / we should have asked?

Yeah sure, I’d like to add that we are always looking to speak with potential rodent model CROs, collaborators, and investors. Also, you should have asked for my favorite mouse joke.

How do people get in touch with you?

If anyone is interested in getting in touch with me they can shoot me an email at arshia.firouzi@ravatasolutions.com or a tweet at @ArshiaFirouzi.

If you would like to have your company featured in the Irish Tech News Business Showcase, get in contact with us at Simon@IrishTechNews.ie or on Twitter: @SimonCocking