Zonova - Tackling Antimicrobial Resistance

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Today we're excited to meet Georgia Fleet of Zonova

So Georgia, tell us more about Zonova

Zonova is a UK based med tech start up focused on tackling one of the biggest threats to both animal and human health; antimicrobial resistance.

Hospitals are breeding grounds for highly resistant infections, and one of the biggest contributors are actually the medical devices used everyday, such as catheters.

As an example, the CDC quotes that in humans, 75% of patients who use urinary catheters go on to develop UTIs [1], which subsequently need antibiotic treatment.

Zonova has developed a novel antimicrobial technology that can be integrated directly into medical devices, which then reduces infection risk without using antibiotics.

How did you come up with the business idea and what problem are you looking to solve?

My doctoral research focused on developing on antimicrobial solutions for ventilator-associated pneumonia, where I saw how medical devices (in this case endotracheal tubes) often lead to infections, complications, and possibly preventable deaths.

This experience underscored the urgent need for innovative solutions to reduce these risks. However, the huge problem with what I developed was that it simply was not commercially viable (too expensive, and too difficult to make in the first place, let alone scale!).

Once I'd finished my doctorate, I set out on finding a cost effective and scalable solution, to successfully bring antimicrobial medical devices to market.

What made you want to start your own business?

I am a first time founder! I've always had a bit of an entrepreneurial streak, I was interested in it from a young child having had a father who started his own business. I even did the whole 'set up a milkshake stand at a school event' as a teenager.

However, I was extremely risk adverse. I thought my path would be go to university, get a good job, with a good salary, and be settled. However I ended up doing my doctorate (incredibly low stipend!) after my undergraduate degree, and seeing this gap/need for novel antimicrobial solutions to help tackle the AMR crisis was too much to ignore.

Rather foolishly my thought process was that if I'm going to have a go at this it might as well be now (as I'm not sure if I'd have the guts to leave a nice well paid stable job!).

It took a year and a half of bootstrapping, some dodgy spare-room experiments (in the absence of a lab), and a million and one pitch deck iterations, before we were able to raise funds and really accelerate our growth at Zonova.

What stage is your business currently at?

We're at a really exciting stage; firstly, we have two UK based veterinary hospital pilots due to start this year using Zonova catheters (one for IV catheters and one for urinary catheters).

So, this is huge for us, and for me personally after doing work in this area for 8+ years now to finally see it come to fruition and used in clinics will be a huge milestone. My other priorities right now are to continue conversations with possible partners for Zonova.

As part of our business plan, we don't aim to manufacture these devices long term and sell directly into hospitals/veterinary practices. As our technology can be incorporated into various devices (we've done it with commercially available IV catheters, urinary catheters, endotracheal tubes, feeding tubes, sutures, drains, you name it!), so we see it best fitting as a licensed product.

Licensing to device manufacturers already in the industry means for us that our end users get to continue using their favourite products but with antimicrobial protection, which we ultimately hope means the uptake is higher, which therefore will lead to the most impact possible.

What do you love most about being an entrepreneur?

The thrill of seeing the direct impact and potential of our technology in the industry, and meeting the most incredible people. It is the most exciting (and also the most anxiety inducing!) experience, but I wouldn't change it for the world.

What is the number one business tip you've learned that you'd like to share with fellow budding entrepreneurs?

Be unfuckwithable - Verity Baldry (our amazing chairperson).

Who are your startup heroes?

Dr Eve Hanks - a fellow female founder, NED and advisor to Zonova. She is that support for us whether we are in the room or not, and what she has achieved with MI:RNA is incredible (including completing a Series A round last year!).

Having a strong support system who get the industry and the startup world has been invaluable to me as a first time founder, so yes, Eve is absolutely my start-up hero!

Is there a favourite podcast, book or series you'd like to share with the world?

My favourite podcast to listen to is Working Hard, Hardly Working by Grace Beverley. It's not all about business, but each conversation she draws out the most interesting and inspiring stories from a range of different founders and experts.

I've been following her for such a long time, she herself and her guests are always an inspiration and motivator for me to get up and get going!

Where can people find you online?

Check our our website and follow us on LinkedIn to carry on the conversation. 

It's been really great to chat today Georgia! Good luck in the future with your business and we look forward to catching up with you soon.

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