Key Investor Signals
Reported 78% prediction of non-contact ACL injuries
Across a three-year cohort of 1,550+ professional players, OptiZone reports its model flagged 28 of 35 non-contact ACL injuries before they occurred.
CHF 610k secured through early-stage financing
OptiZone had raised CHF 610k by 2026.
Founder built and led clinical motion-analysis programs
Mina Baniasad founded the Mowafaghian Rehab Center and led a motion-analysis lab at Sharif University before conducting wearable knee-loading research at EPFL.
Other Positive Signals
- Selected among 10 Swiss startups for Venture Leaders Medtech 2026.
- Won the 2026 EPFL Startup Champions Seed Night, an early-stage startup pitch competition.
- Advisors include Swiss Olympic Medical Center head Prof. Vincent Gremeaux and Swiss-team physician Dr Philippe Tscholl.
Team
Mina Baniasad
Founder & CEO
- Founded the Mowafaghian Rehab Center and previously led a motion-analysis lab at Sharif University of Technology.
- 15 years in advanced musculoskeletal modelling spanning clinical movement analysis, rehabilitation and wearable biomechanics.
- Postdoctoral researcher at EPFL's Laboratory of Movement Analysis and Measurement, developing wearable systems to estimate knee loading.
Product
OptiZone combines wearable motion sensors, a mobile app and a dashboard to assess footballers on the pitch and merge movement data with existing team inputs. The company reports its model flagged 28 of 35 non-contact ACL injuries (78%) before they occurred.
Three-minute on-pitch assessment
Players complete jumps, changes of direction and sprints wearing motion sensors. OptiZone estimates knee and muscle loading and returns results in about three minutes, without lab equipment.
Unifies existing team data
The platform brings OptiZone measurements together with GPS, strength, force, mobility and match data to create one player profile and surface mismatches across sources.
Prioritises players for follow-up
The platform ranks players by emerging injury risk, shows the factors behind each alert and suggests next actions based on rules set by the team's own staff.
Market Overview
Player injuries create recurring salary and performance costs for professional football clubs, while serious knee injuries can sideline players for months. Clubs already spend on athlete-monitoring tools, but routine joint-loading assessment still largely depends on laboratory equipment.
Commercial adoption of athlete-monitoring technology is well established across elite sport, and football is a major buyer category within the growing sports analytics market. Thousands of teams already use player-tracking and performance tools, creating an established purchasing category for field-based injury and biomechanics products.
Salary cost of player injuries across Europe's top five men's leagues in the 2024/25 season.
Global sports analytics market estimate for 2025; football was the largest sport segment.
Catapult Sports reports serving 5,500+ elite teams across 40+ sports and more than 100 countries.
Among 107 ACL injury videos analysed for biomechanics, knee valgus loading appeared in 81%.
Comparable Outcomes
Perch
Built camera-based strength-training tracking that gave elite team staff real-time athlete readiness data. Catapult acquired Perch in June 2025 for $18M, with up to $10M more tied to contract-value milestones.
Hinge Health
Provided digital musculoskeletal care using exercise therapy, wearable sensors and remote clinical support. Hinge Health priced its May 2025 IPO at $32 per share, valuing the company at about $2.6B.
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Sources
This profile was built from public company materials, ecosystem sources, market references, and professional profiles.