Chicago health care incubator and innovation hub Matter has announced its next accelerator, which will focus on reducing maternal mortality.
The announcement comes days after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sent out a report showing that the U.S. maternal mortality rate increased to 32.9 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2021, up from 23.8 in 2020, resulting in a 40% increase. The mortality rate for Black women was even higher, at 2.6 times the rates for white women.
The increases for all races groups were "significant," according to the CDC.
"It's gotten worse," Matter CEO Steven Collens told Chicago Inno. "Maternal health in this country has been abysmal for many years, and it should be unacceptable."
While Matter had planned on addressing maternal mortality several months ago, Collens said, the new data reemphasized how important the topic is.
"It's an embarrassing and horrifying statistic," Collens said. "It's a bad place to be as a country and is not consistent with the way we'd like to think about our country."
The accelerator, 51 Labs — so named because women are 51% of the population — focuses on women's health. It will look to attract 10 startups developing innovations to reduce maternal mortality in the U.S., focusing on areas like access to care and early intervention.
Named a Chicago Inno Fire Award winner in 2022, Matter launched two premium accelerators in 2022, including the first 51 Labs, which was centered on menopause and focused on earlier identification and symptom management.
The 12-week program will launch again in the summer, and is backed by Laerdal Million Lives Fund, a $100 million fund that targets digital health and tech companies, which will provide capital to support the cohort, a big change from the first 51 Labs.
Collens has also had conversations with bankers about participating in the program to provide feedback about how to safeguard money and assets.
"The last 14 to 15 months have been particularly challenging for entrepreneurs to raise money compared to the preceding decade. Given the chaos of the last couple of weeks and just making sure that entrepreneurs understand their financial picture and how that works [will be a focus]," Collens said. "In addition to the cash, they will get a lot of exposure to and guidance from investors who are part of the program."
