Editor’s note: This story was originally published in The Pitch, a DC Inno special feature spotlighting young local startups led by underrepresented founders. The companies included may not have much (or any) funding or revenue, but they do have plans — and they’re taking the initial steps to make things happen.
Delmonize “Del” Smith’s mother, a health care professional, contracted tuberculosis and passed away after various drugs failed to treat the infection. He soon learned his biological father had died a year prior from cancer.
Those experiences helped lead to Acclinate Inc., which aims to address the underlying issue — that minority groups predisposed to certain diseases aren’t adequately represented in the clinical trials for those very treatments.
It’s an issue magnified by the Covid-19 pandemic that the industry is working to address; the Food and Drug Administration came out recently with new draft guidance to improve clinical trial diversity.
“Our objective isn’t to try to convince people to be part of a trial; our objective is just for people to be able to be educated, engaged, knowledgeable, so that they then can make an informed decision about participating or not,” Smith said in a video for his startup. The goal, he said, is to build “a trusted network of diverse individuals who want to be empowered to take control of their health.”
The pitch: 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 — important to address many minority groups’ hesitancy to participate in clinical research, Smith said. The venture is part of Johnson & Johnson Innovation’s JLabs incubator in D.C., with a headquarters office in Birmingham and another in the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology in Huntsville.
The team: Smith is co-founder and CEO of Acclinate. He started the company with Tiffany Whitlow, its 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 — which is less effective in nearly half of African Americans and 67% of Puerto Ricans, she said in this video.
The business model: 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 and is projecting $3.5 million in revenue for 2022, Smith said.
The challenge: Identifying great talent to add to the team as it scales. The company, now at 14 employees, plans to double that headcount by the end of the year, Smith said. It’s hiring for community managers, account managers, software developers and engineers.
The game plan: Acclinate, now with seven clients on board, is shooting to add another 25 pharma clients to its roster. It’s also developing the next version of its tech platform and aiming to engage with more communities of color. To do it, the startup is now raising a $5 million seed round, looking for “the right strategic investors” with deep expertise in pharma and health care, Smith said. That would come on top of $1.4 million the company raised in pre-seed funding in 2021.
