When Simone Panella, founder of Dyamotech, first moved to the UK from a remote town in Italy on a rugby bursary at just 16, he found himself in a whole new world and found understanding his British teammates a challenge.
Yet despite overcoming learning a new language and even cutting out the earpiece of his rugby headgear to help with hearing and understanding teammates on the field, it was a series of concussions that cut short Simone’s rugby career just a few years later.
Simone’s passion was ultimately the sport he had fallen in love with and uprooted his life for, even if he could no longer play. Instead, he decided to channel his attention to improving the experience of its athletes, “When I was 19, I had this idea of trying to redesign rugby headgear to try to make it better, because I’d... always felt we needed improvements.”
In 2021 Simone began work on his project and during his first year at Brunel University was awarded £5000 as part of the Brunel Venture Competition, which saw the early-stage fully bootstrapped startup, which goes by the name Dyamotech, garner a lot of attention. Since then the company has gone from strength to strength, achieving £250,000 worth of work thanks to manufacturing partners’ interest in helping build out the product concept.
The Impact of Wearable Tech
The industry’s growing concern surrounding the dangers of heavy-impact sports such as American Football and Rugby, particularly in the Under-18s and Simone’s direct experience of playing elite rugby and experiencing injury is exactly why he turned his focus to improving protection.
Innovative solutions such as the Instrumented Mouthguards, will be worn by players at this year’s Six Nations, and now, Dyamotech are actively working at both professional and grassroots levels to also intervene and help athletes in the sport, which was previously inaccessible to youth and grassroot organisations.
Having first tested prototypes in 2022 for various contact sports, including MMA, Boxing and Rugby, Dyamotech is now launching its first multi-sport headband for children.
“Everybody can use the multi-sport headband as a tool in grassroots and youth sports. It's really easy to use. The child wears it throughout the session, and this little device will monitor every head impact the child receives. At the end of every session, it will give an easy-to-read report through our app about the number, force and directions of of those impacts.”
The first 60 units are being deployed in April between two private schools, but Dyamotech’s waitlist has only been increasing, with an ever-growing international waiting list of more than 500 parents and clubs wanting to try out the product.
“Just like a fire alarm, Our technology detects and warns of any potential head trauma before it becomes a disaster. With Dyamotech in place, you and your children can leave the ‘worrying’ to us and just relax and enjoy the game.”
Finding the Space to Nurture Innovation
Brunel University is an epicenter for grassroots innovation, and encourages entrepreneurship and startup culture amongst its students. Universities are an invaluable and exciting source of creativity and birth some of the world’s leading innovators.
Places like Plus X Innovation develop close relationships with universities such as Brunel, to help these makers achieve their goals and next steps, and that’s exactly what led Simone through the doors of our hub in Slough.
“Last year, I was part of the Design School, a corporate program where students could choose a company to work on their final project. We had two interns working with us, and that's when I joined [Plus X Innovation] in 2023 on the Brunel hot desks. I’ve stayed because I think it's a great community. It feels like a family, you know? You come here, you have a coffee, you have a chat. It's full of really seasoned founders and entrepreneurs who you can talk and brainstorm with. It's great.”
Whilst not only enabling space and time for Simone to nurture his growing startup, he has also found connection in a time where he’s needed it most.
“There are a lot of people here that made a great impact in society, and it's always good to be around those kinds of people, especially when working alone. It's not easy. My partners are in Italy as well, so as a first-time founder and student, it's not easy. I think it's a great combination of things. And I think everyone should leverage this.”
As well as being part of the Plus X Innovation community, it is exciting and dynamic early-stage startups like Dyamotech that trigger economic growth in local ecosystems like Slough. Through the creation of his company, comes the potential for job creation and the potential for opportunities for others to come in with their technological inventions and manufacturing connections.
Businesses like Simone’s generate a knock-on effect, vital to the economic landscape.
Embracing Opportunity
A self-confessed ‘yes-man’, Simone embraces every opportunity that comes his way. Having this attitude has seen him be listed as a potential nominee for this year’s Forbes 30 under 30, just four years after launching Dyamotech.
When asked about giving advice to others under 30 looking to start their own innovation journeys, Simone touched upon why his own family’s history has had such a profound impact on his outlook on opportunity. His family lost everything when a decimating earthquake hit his hometown in the mountains of Italy when he was a child. The experience has had a lasting and profound impact on his outlook today:
“I think that's what drives me. And so this is why I'm always looking for something new and always trying to get out of my comfort zone and trying to make the most out of the time that I'm here. But I think I think we are full of things that we can do, especially in a city like London. I think everyone should take advantage of that. This is the proof.”
Innovators such as Simone are paving the way for an alternative future. His outlook on life, remarkable tenacity and his brilliant innovation for grassroots organisations is an inspiration for all.
To keep updated on what’s next for the dynamic Simone Panella, follow him on LinkedIn, or check out the Dyamotech website here.
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