Form-i-Baby has reached their crowdfunding target on Birchal in the midst of the COVID19 global pandemic, raising AUD$175K and welcoming 140 new investors to advance Pronto Bottle – a world-first self-sterilising baby bottle.

The technology will make bottle feeding safer for babies, save precious time for parents and keep millions of bottles out of landfill every year.

The impressive raise will allow Pronto Bottle to finalise a new and improved prototype and proceed to lab testing, and testing with parents and key opinion leaders. Behind the scenes, the Melbourne-based startup is now raising a larger round of $675K to support subsequent tooling, manufacture, and launch.

Founded by award-winning entrepreneur Shannon Gilleland, the bottle was recently compared to Apple with Alex Zaharov-Reutt from iTWire saying, “If Apple had a baby, Pronto would be it.”

The durable bottle uses the latest ultraviolet light wave technology to self-sterilise at home and on the go, freeing up around an hour every day on bottle preparation and reducing the bottles a family needs down to just one.

Form-i-Baby have invested heavily in market research, prototyping, and testing since the concept was first born. The company has been working on building relationships with manufacturers, distributors, sales, and marketing agents, with discussions now in progress for joint venture opportunities across Australia and Asia.

Shannon joined Asia Pacific’s MedTech, BioTech and HealthTech accelerator, MedTech Actuator in 2019 to gain personal mentoring and technical knowledge on the MedTech industry. Through MedTech Actuator, Shannon gained expertise in manufacturing, marketing, strategy, IP, commercialisation, and leveraged support on fundraising and investor relationships.

Shannon says that the bespoke industry masterclasses, and personal mentorship throughout and after the program have supported her startup journey.

“The intense masterclasses from professionals who have worked in MedTech, BioTech and HealthTech industries, and this unique skill set, would be very difficult to source elsewhere,” says Shannon.

“The close mentorship provides honest feedback on your direction, skills, progress, expertise and weaknesses, ensuring you never get to walk around with your ‘startup blinkers’ on.”

“The immense network of industry contacts that you can tap into is something you wouldn’t be able to access unless you were in the industry yourself for 20+ years, and even then, it wouldn’t be as diverse.”

Applications are now open for MedTech Actuator 2021. If you’re ready to radically accelerate your innovation to improve and save lives, .