Parents of children in kindergarten and elementary school are always worried that their children will come home scratching their heads because of lice. Lice are a very common pest - three out of every four children will suffer from lice at least once in their lives. The lice treatment market is estimated at $2 billion.
There are a variety of preparations for treating lice. Startup Parasonic, a newcomer in the market, comes from New Generation Technology 3 (NGT3), a Nazareth incubator that brings together Jewish and Arab entrepreneurs, with a focus on the life sciences. ParaSonic raised $1.6 million last week from a private US investor, after having raised NIS 3 million from the incubator and the Ministry of Economy and Industry Chief Scientist.
ParaSonic has developed a device that destroys lice and lice eggs with ultrasound waves, without any chemicals. The company's product is a comb for home use that is projected to reach the market within a year. ParaSonic claims that its device produces results after a single combing lasting five minutes, and is not painful, in contrast to combs in the market with finer teeth (which do not use ultrasound waves).
Founded on the basis of a patent obtained by entrepreneur Mor Cohen, ParaSonic is managed by CEO David Tabor, who previously managed a series of biomed companies. Tabor said, "The capital we have raised will enable us to make progress in development, protect and expand our patent-protected knowledge infrastructure, and complete clinical trials. We believe that we'll achieve a product ready for production and mass marketing within a year. The initial target markets will be the US, Europe, Israel, and Asia - places where lice have already developed resistance to the chemical materials in use."
NGT3 managing partner and CEO Zohar Gendler said, "ParaSonic is the game changer that will bring consumers all over the world a real revolution in dealing with lice in the form of an environmentally friendly, quick-working, and effective breakthrough device. ParaSonic has been able to utilize its understanding of the market need to develop unique technology with the help of NGT3's strong business envelope. We're confident that it will bring about a breakthrough in treating a problem that is very troublesome for parents and children around the world."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on November 20, 2016
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