The Health Wildcatters accelerator’s third class of healthcare startups reflects a diverse group of entrepreneurs tackling a broad range of conditions. Among the participants include a company helping people regain control of their muscles following a stroke or traumatic brain injury to a group helping reduce stroke risk in people with atrial fibrillation.
Participants give up 8 percent equity in their companies in exchange for $30,000 in seed funding and a 12-week course that will get them in front of investors and mentors. Asking companies to relinquish equity is something that some healthcare accelerators have moved away from, such as DreamIt Health, or never had in the first place — like the Digital Health Accelerator in Philadelphia.
Earlier this year, Health Wildcatters said three of its portfolio companies had raised funding including Lantern Pharma, a biotech company using personalized medicine to develop a cancer drug, which raised more than $1 million. Silicone Arts Labs raised $1.5 million to advance its artificial skin technology. Mobile health startup Orb Health raised $650,000.
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Here’s a look at the company’s in the new class:
Codedgi developed an automated coding software to help physicians understand compliance guidelines, learn new ICD10 codes, and speed up billing. It is designed for the coding of ambulatory digital clinical notes for professional healthcare billing for clinical notes and electronic health record documentation. Among its management team are CTO Daniel Heinze, CFO Jan Clark and co-founder and president Rhonda Thomas-Florimbi.
DUALAMS developed a tool to eliminate the discomfort that tends to go with laryngoscopic examinations. By delivering nebulized lidocaine, a local anesthetic agent, it is designed to eliminate complications associated with these exams, such as reflex gagging and coughing. John Houston is the founder and CEO.
Dynofit developed a wireless smart electromyography system that helps people with stroke, traumatic brain injury and cerebral palsy gain control of their muscles. Rohan Loveland, the co-founder and CEO was previously a scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Other co-founders include Maria Schneider, Edward Rosten, and Alex Macdonell.
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Exhale Healthcare Advocates views itself as an H&R Block of healthcare. It does bill analysis and negotiation, advises on health insurance and helps users do price comparisons for non-emergency tests, procedures, prescription drugs and medical devices. Sarah O’Leary is the founder and CEO.
Flow MedTech is working on a patent-protected medical device in a bid to reduce the risk of stroke in millions of people with atrial fibrillation. Two biomedical engineering grads from Georgia Tech founded the company — Arnab Chakraborty and Christine Hang.
Insight Optics uses mobile imaging tech to help primary care physicians record fundus examinations and transmit results to ophthalmologists for review. The goal is to provide earlier eye disease detection. The company co-founders are CEO Brock Webberman who has a bioengineering degree from Johns Hopkins, and Aaron Enten, the CTO. Enten also graduated from Johns Hopkins Masters program in bioengineering and is a PhD student at Georgia Tech.
md Portal might want to think about changing its name so Google searches don’t direct folks to Stanford Children’s Hospital’s portal. In fairness, its website came up third in a Google search. The company describes itself as a telemedicine platform for dermatologists. Among its co-founders are Venessa Pena-Robichaux, the chief medical officer, Paul Robichaux, the CEO, and Victor Lyuboslavsky, the CTO.
Noninvasix developed a way to conduct accurate, noninvasive monitoring of fetal welfare during labor and delivery. Its goal is to prevent hypoxicischemic encephalopathy — a condition caused by inadequate oxygen — using optoacoustic technology. Graham Randall is the CEO
Obaa uses Google Glass to help primary care physicians to connect with specialists during patient encounters. The founders are CEO Cobby Amoah and Product Designer Charles Kunene.
Vidas Sanas Maria del Carmen Uceda is the co-founder and president of the business, which provides a bilingual wellness solution for employers and healthcare providers. According to Uceda’s LinkedIn page part of the company involves building Christ-centered healing networks for patient-centered care.
