While cities like San Francisco, Boston and New York remain the heavyweights when it comes to startups and venture capital, Birmingham was represented in American Inno's national Startups to Watch list.
Birmingham-based Acclinate, with a current funding amount at $6.5 million according to Crunchbase, made the list. It aims to help health care organizations make their clinical trials more diverse. The startup's predictive analytics software works with pharmaceutical makers and other health care firms to present their clinical trials to likely participants and increase diverse enrollment, while also driving down recruitment costs.
Acclinate was accompanied on the list by a Portland, Oregon, startup making organs for surgeons to practice surgery, an Atlanta startup helping creators earn money (with a boost from Snoop Dogg), a Sacramento robotics startup helping farmers pick fruit and an Albany startup making bacon out of mushrooms. A Baltimore feminine hygiene startup that raised funding from Beyoncé, a Seattle startup helping companies identify pay disparities backed by Stephen Curry and the Miami startup co-led by Jake Paul that wants to change the sports-betting industry also made the list.
View the full list here.
Co-founder of Acclinate, Delmonize “Del” Smith, was inspired to start the company after his mother, a health care professional, contracted tuberculosis and died after various drugs failed to treat the infection. He soon learned his biological father had died a year prior from cancer.
Smith started the company with Tiffany Whitlow, co-founder and chief development officer. She was also inspired by her personal experiences with the health care system. Whitlow grew up not knowing her family medical history after being given up for adoption as a biracial child. Years later as a mother at age 19, her baby was hospitalized for asthma and treated with albuterol.
The digital health company, founded in 2020, provides resources and education so people can make informed decisions about participating in clinical trials and genomic research. The business works with pharmaceutical companies and health care organizations to engage communities of color for their research, to make it more inclusive. The venture participated in Johnson & Johnson Innovation’s JLabs incubator in D.C.
Acclinate’s customers — pharmaceutical companies and health care organizations — pay an annual fee to access its platform and services. The company took in $1.2 million in revenue during 2021.
In January, Birmingham nonprofit Prosper and Acclinate partnered to create a new portal aimed at reducing minority health disparities.
The partnership unveiled a new website, dubbed B-Included, for Jefferson County residents. The portal is designed to increase access to resources and supportive services in an effort to remove health-related barriers to employment.
It also received a $100,000 investment from Google for Startups AS part of its Black Founders Fund in 2021.
