Local innovation center mHub is poised to launch the latest cohort of its medtech-focused accelerator program.
The mHub MedTech Accelerator debuted in 2021 with a goal of helping medical-device startups that have the potential to transform health care. The six-month initiative provides companies with product development and commercialization assistance.
The program now is preparing for its third iteration.
When the program launched, mHub invested around $130,000 in eight to 10 startups for 5% equity. That support included $75,000 in cash, with the balance coming in services like access to components and parts.
For the forthcoming third cohort, startups will receive $200,000 in cash and services, as well as access to the program's corporate partners — a roster that includes Baxter, Endeavor Health and GE HealthCare.
Startups in the second cohort of the accelerator program, which concluded in spring 2023, have filed 15 patients, scheduled 10 clinical trails and pilots, hired eight employees, and raised $4.2 million since starting the program.
Monica Vajani, executive director of the mHub MedTech Accelerator, said some of the participants — like Wave Therapeutics, a company with patent-pending technology to help prevent pressure injuries — were able to improve product design and testing. Others, like EndoShunt Medical, benefited from customer discovery and product design services at mHub, Vajani said.
The mHub Medtech Accelerator is seeking eight to 10 startups to participate in the next cohort, which will begin in November. Applications are due Sept. 12.
Vajani said early-stage venture funding for hard-tech startups can be especially challenging in an already challenging fundraising environment.
"For every hardtech company that gets $1 in investment, software gets $15, and that only increases as you get earlier on the spectrum," Vajani told Chicago Inno. "When you think about the medtech space specifically, it can be really challenging to even get customer feedback and get input on what the regulatory path should look like. It can be harder for medtech companies to bootstrap all the way through even to the point where they make it to clinical trial."
MHub opened in 2017 to provide a space for Chicago's hardware entrepreneurs to design and build their products, with a particular focus on medtech, smart manufacturing, and climate and energy eforts. Last year, the ventured moved to a new $50 million facility that received support through state and local resources.
"We invested about $6 million in prototyping equipment for any company that is part of our community to use," Vajani said.
MHub to date has invested in 19 early-stage medtech startups and a total of 46 startups across smart and sustainable manufacturing, climate and energy tech, and medtech. Since its opening, it has helped launch more than 1,600 products.
Vajani said the new cohort will begin its work at a time when innovation in the medtech space has never looked more promising.
"We're seeing physicians come out with designs or products after working in a lab for 30 years," she said. "We're seeing a lot more engineers come out and decide to go to commercialize a product or a discovery that has been made in a lab."
