AIsthesis: from Bosnia and Herzegovina to Switzerland’s MedTech Ecosystem

When we first shared the story of AIsthesis, Dragana Mujanović and her co-founder, Ajla Ličina, were working to prove that a solution born from personal experience could become a viable startup. The idea came from Dragana’s family experience with sensory processing challenges and a desire to create better support for children and their caregivers. With support from Bosnia and Herzegovina’s startup ecosystem and Swiss EP experts, the team moved from validating the idea toward building their first product.

Today, AIsthesis is facing a different challenge. The question is no longer only whether the solution has potential, but whether a startup from Bosnia and Herzegovina has what it takes to become a MedTech company operating in one of Europe’s most advanced innovation ecosystems.

Over the past six months, AIsthesis has moved with great commitment and grit to connect with Switzerland’s MedTech community, build partnerships, and gain validation from institutions, experts, and investors.

Finding a way into the Swiss ecosystem

For AIsthesis, Switzerland represented an opportunity to enter one of Europe’s strongest MedTech ecosystems. But entering Switzerland required more than ambition. AIsthesis needed the right connections, validation, and partners to navigate a new ecosystem.

The first step came through Swiss EP’s support. At the Business Angel Summit Sarajevo in the fall of 2025, Dragana was invited by Swiss EP to participate in the program’s 10-year anniversary event in Basel, which brought together key actors from the Swiss startup and innovation ecosystem, alongside founders and partner organizations from the Swiss EP countries.

Ahead of the event, Swiss EP experts Prabitha Urwyler and Anne Ulvestad helped arrange meetings and introductions that allowed her to start exploring potential partnerships in Switzerland.

Those conversations became the starting point for a much bigger journey. Looking back at that moment, Dragana shares her gratitude:

We would never have arrived in Switzerland if it weren’t for Swiss EP and that event. Swiss EP opened the doors of Switzerland for us.

For Dragana and her team, this marked the beginning of a process that enabled AIsthesis to connect with experts and institutions specializing in MedTech innovation.

But introductions alone were not enough; AIsthesis still had to deliver value and prove that it could meet the expectations of a highly regulated and competitive MedTech environment.

Building trust in a new ecosystem

Unlike many software startups, medical technology companies need more than a strong idea and market potential. They need expertise in regulation, technology development, research, and clinical pathways.

The next step for AIsthesis was to build confidence among the organizations that could help them navigate those challenges.

The startup was accepted into the MedTech Hub’s Booster Program at SITEM, the Swiss Institute for Translational and Entrepreneurial Medicine in Bern, becoming one of four startups from outside Switzerland selected for the program. The Canton of Bern enabled AIsthesis to participate in the program by covering its annual participation fee. On top of that, "be-advanced”, the official innovation promotion agency for the Canton of Bern, supports the startup with its business coaching and networking services.

For Dragana, this type of institutional support showed that AIsthesis was gaining recognition: “The Canton of Bern identified us as a startup with great potential that fits very well with the canton’s development agenda.”

For an early-stage MedTech startup, this type of institutional backing provided both credibility and access to the networks needed to continue developing the company in Switzerland.

Turning an idea into a MedTech development plan

Through the mentorship and support of the MedTech HUB and the Bern Economic Development Agency, the team gained access to the resources, expertise, and guidance needed to translate the startup’s vision into a roadmap aligned with the requirements of medical technology development. The startup partnered with Effectum Medical to work on its regulatory roadmap for software as a medical device and its hardware sensing accessory. It also worked with Helbling Technik, a Swiss engineering company specialized in medical technology, to develop a high-level technology roadmap and analyze the best approach for developing the hardware component.

In parallel, AIsthesis conducted a professional Freedom to Operate (FTO) analysis with Keller & Schneider, helping the team assess the relevant intellectual property landscape and potential patent-related risks.

At the same time, AIsthesis established a collaboration with Bern University of Applied Sciences as a research partner.

Together, these partnerships helped the team address four areas essential for the further development of a MedTech solution: regulatory preparation, Freedom to Operate, engineering expertise, and research collaboration. Dragana explains how it all fits into a bigger picture:

Looking separately, these are all small achievements, but together, they enabled us to make a step forward in the Swiss startup ecosystem.

As AIsthesis prepares for its next stage of development, the team has started engaging with investors and strengthening its foundation in Switzerland.

The startup was also accepted into Venture Kick and began engaging with investor networks such as SICTIC and Business Angels Switzerland. As part of its efforts to build strong connections within the Swiss ecosystem, AIsthesis attended several startup and MedTech conferences and, through the MedTech HUB, connected with serial entrepreneur Nicolas Berg, who has now invited the team to pitch to the Mission Possible VC fund.

A founder growing with her company

Another important milestone came when Dragana applied to the Master of Advanced Studies in Translational Medicine and Biomedical Entrepreneurship at SITEM.

Designed specifically for people working on medical innovations, the program focuses on the practical challenges founders face when developing healthcare solutions. She applied without expecting much, but the program committee recognized the potential of AIsthesis and awarded her a scholarship.

The program will allow her to work directly on areas the startup needs, including clinical study design and translational medicine. For Dragana, this represents more than an educational opportunity:

I would say that, regarding validation in Switzerland, we have gone through everything — institutions, regulatory partners, universities. And we did it in only six months. As a deep-tech and MedTech startup, we have been accepted into the ecosystem. Now it’s up to us to explore how far we can go.

The next chapter

Six months earlier, AIsthesis was a Bosnian startup looking for its first steps into Switzerland. Today, it has a network of Swiss partners, a regulatory roadmap, and a stronger foundation for the next stage of development.

For Dragana, the experience shows what can happen when founders from emerging ecosystems gain access to the right networks and expertise:

We really did a lot of work, and honestly, we would never have come to Switzerland without Swiss EP and that event in Basel. In a short period of time, everything came together, and we entered an ecosystem where people look at the idea, the capacities, and how they can support you.