The Ecosystem: digital twins drive new opportunities for start-ups

21 May 2024 | News

After long use in engineering, digital twins are proliferating in other sectors, thanks to an abundance of data

Simq is a German start-up that specialises in medical simulations. Photo: Simq

The concept of digital twins has a long history in engineering, where the creation of digital copies of machines or systems allows performance testing and fine-tuning without the cost of rebuilding the original for each round of changes. But in recent years, new applications of digital twins have proliferated, underpinning products and services in medicine, energy, planning and other sectors.

This development has taken time because digital twins are simply harder to build in some cases. “Car parts have similar material properties and behaviours, so it is much easier to build their digital twins,” said Florian Maier, chief marketing officer of Simq, a German start-up that specialises in medical simulations. “Every human is different, and human tissues are very complex, so…