Four medical technology start-ups are set to join the Ignition Labs accelerator program.
The four companies will take part in a six month development program and receive $25,000 seed capital, expert mentors and access to a network of investors through program partners ATP Innovations, intellectual property company Griffith Hack, and Brandon Capital Partners, a firm that specialises in life science investments.
The companies are next generation orthopaedic splint start-up BiOZ; drug delivery system for critical care patients start-up Du Motu Cordis; spinal immobilisation device start-up ResQdevices; and urinary incontinence device Sky Biomed.
Ignition Labs co-founder and director of commercialisation Ben Wright told StartupSmart over 40 start-ups applied, and these four stood out due to their track record and the potential of the technologies they were pitching.
“We were looking for technologies that had the ability to transform lives, and have a significant market opportunity,” Wright says.
“It was primarily on the basis of team and who had a track record of execution, experience in the life science space and had networks they could leverage. They were also coachable, which makes them prime candidates for an accelerator program.”
Wright adds the cohort had considerable experience and would be joining a community of over 20 life science start-ups at ATP Innovations. Several of the ATP companies have received significant investments or been sold in the past few years.
By the end of the six month program, the start-ups should be ready to take investment and may either be in the market or have just completed clinical trials.
“There are a multitude of barriers for life science start-ups,” Wright says.
“Many clinicians, who are extremely smart people, may have great ideas they struggle to turn into start-ups because they lack the business skills to do so. This program is designed to fix that.”
Rose is the current head of growth at Rampersand Ventures. She was formerly a reporter at StartupSmart.
