Top 25 Spotlight: Miha Biotech

Putting Real Skin in the Game

For millions of seniors, burn victims, and individuals with sensitive skin, a simple wound triggers a secondary, painful problem: the bandage itself. Traditional bandages rely on harsh, chemical adhesives. While these glues keep a dressing anchored, removing them often tears thin, fragile skin. For seniors, whose skin naturally becomes thinner and less elastic over time, stripping away a standard bandage can create entirely new wounds and open the door to dangerous infections.

This is a massive, hidden issue in healthcare. In Canada’s rapidly aging population, skin tears are among the most common accidents in long-term care homes, costing the healthcare system millions of dollars annually in nursing labor and specialized treatments.

Compounding this patient distress is a heavy environmental toll. The global first-aid industry is dependent on single-use plastics and synthetic materials that take centuries to break down in landfills. Healthcare networks and families are trapped using products that heal the body but harm the planet.

That is the dual crisis Miha Biotech is stepping up to solve. By engineering a gentler, nature-inspired alternative to traditional bandages, the Victoria startup is introducing a soft medical dressing that cools, protects, and breathes—ensuring that removing the patch is completely painless for the patient and entirely harmless to the planet.

From Shoreline to Skin Care: The Seaweed Solution

What They’ve Done: Miha Biotech has successfully moved its science out of the lab and into the real world. The company has advanced its seaweed-based hydrogel patch to a crucial testing stage (TRL 6-7) and through rigorous lab testing and working prototypes, they’ve proven their natural material keeps wounds moist, breathable, and visible — all without relying on harsh chemical glues.

This technical momentum has captured strong early market interest and ecosystem backing. Miha Biotech has secured roughly $200,000 in non-dilutive funding and earned recognition from major innovation platforms like StartupFest, the Ocean Startup Project, and this year’s New Ventures BC Competition. Most importantly, the team has interviewed 65 frontline medical professionals and an overwhelming 80% of them expressed immediate interest in using this gentle solution to replace existing, painful dressings.

Why NVBC: Moving through the 2026 New Ventures BC Competition, presented by Innovate BC, has pushed the leadership team to translate their complex science into a clear business case. The competition has forced the founders to look beyond lab formulas and focus on commercial realities—like identifying who will buy the product, finding their first regional entry points, and demonstrating why British Columbia is the perfect launchpad for scalable manufacturing.

Up Next: The next 12 months are all about moving from laboratory testing to active user pilots. This means setting up a localized, small-scale manufacturing line in BC, producing their first standardized commercial batch, and delivering roughly 200 units to 20 early adopter accounts. This push will validate that the product works in real-world settings, confirm customers are willing to pay, and prove their manufacturing process can be easily repeated before scaling up.

Translating Science into Solutions

The Miha Biotech team quickly uncovered a reality check that frequently trips up academic founders: a great breakthrough does not automatically equal a great business. In the early stages, it is easy for scientists to assume that a superior formulation will sell itself on sheer technical merit.

However, the commercial market operates on practical realities, not lab metrics. Frontline nurses and care home operators are not looking at polymer physics; they’re managing tight budgets, strict workflows, and patient comfort.

By stepping out of the lab early to interview dozens of healthcare professionals, the founders learned to focus entirely on user pain points. This early emphasis on customer discovery allowed them to design a product that integrates seamlessly into a busy caregiver’s daily routine—saving time, reducing administrative stress, and directly protecting fragile skin.