Accelerator News | Company Ventures launches a venture studio for healthcare start-ups
A new collaboration between Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Rensselaer County is designed to encourage investment, invention, and entrepreneurship in Troy, NY.
From New York City:
VCWire reports that Company Ventures, a start-up talent ecosystem in New York City, has announced the launch of Terrarium, a new venture studio to incubate healthcare technology start-ups, in partnership with Cactus, an innovation-focused advisory firm.
According to the report, the studio has a goal of incubating up to 10 companies over the next three years by taking a thesis-driven, research-intensive approach focused on segments of healthcare that are being transformed by technology and regulatory pressure.
Terrarium also announced a strategic partnership with Wellstar, the Georgia health system with an expansive network that includes 11 hospitals, five health parks, more than 300 medical office locations, numerous specialty centers, and Catalyst by Wellstar, the system’s innovation and venture arm.
The studio’s first incubation start-up is Rota Health which aims to solve the massive problem of data interoperability in healthcare, which represents 30 percent of all data in the world. The company’s artificial intelligence-enabled data integration platform allows healthcare organizations to connect and analyze disparate datasets across organizations.
From Troy, NY:
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and Rensselaer County are teaming up to launch a business accelerator in downtown Troy to encourage investment, invention, and entrepreneurship, RPI President Martin A. Schmidt and County Executive Steven F. McLaughlin announced last week.
Through the partnership, RPI will guide intellectual property and emerging talent to space and resources provided by the county to foster growth of new technology and business in the county and city.
“This represents an historic partnership between Rensselaer County and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to encourage the next generation of inventors, innovators and entrepreneurs to start here and stay and grow here. The partnership announced today is the start of a new and important chapter in growing Rensselaer County as a center of technology and innovation,” McLaughlin said.
The concept for the Bridge, as the accelerator is known, is informed by Schmidt’s experiences interacting with the start-up community around Kendall Square in Cambridge, MA during his tenure at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
“During my 41 years at MIT, I was able to observe the transformation of Kendall Square from a former industrial district to what is now hailed as ‘the most innovative square mile on the planet’ – a place bustling with tech firms, venture capitalists and urban vibrancy,” Schmidt said. “It will take time, but I can see the potential for a transformation in Troy, Rensselaer County, and the Capital Region. That is why it is so critical today to give the most promising technologists and entrepreneurs in the region the space and resources to grow right here. If they start here, and we support them in those early days, I believe they will stay here.”
From Detroit, MI:
For more than two decades, TechTown Detroit, Wayne State University’s innovation and entrepreneurship hub, has been a driving force in Detroit’s small-business ecosystem, creating the necessary conditions for startups to thrive.
As Detroit’s first innovation district and co-working space for entrepreneurs, TechTown is strengthening its efforts to support local tech start-ups by offering more specialized resources to help them grow faster and succeed.
This vision – to ensure start-ups not only launch but succeed – is reinforced with the recent addition of two key leaders: Niles Heron, Senior Director of Tech Programs, and Jacob Evan Smith, Director of Mobility and Health Innovation.
The tech-based program team directs TechTown’s engagement in mobility (through the Mobility Accelerator Innovation Network), health (through the MedHealth initiative), and programs like Start Studio and Scale Studio — where proven founders and strategists help local founders build novel and new tech products and better utilize technology to help their existing service and product businesses thrive.
Since 2007, TechTown has supported more than 6,000 businesses in Detroit and Wayne County, leading to the creation of more than 2,200 jobs and $408 million raised in start-up and growth capital.
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