A local startup founded by University of Cincinnati alumna has landed a spot in a one of the world’s top accelerator programs, with an equity investment to boot that pushes it past its pre-seed fundraising goal.
Band Connect, a digital health platform for remote physical therapy, has been selected for the Techstars Healthcare Accelerator. Overall, 12 companies were picked to participate in the three-month cohort held in Los Angeles.
Techstars is considered one of the largest pre-seed investors in the world, with access to “an unrivaled network” of corporate partners, 10,000 investors and 1,600 alumni.
Only two other Cincinnati companies have been selected for its cohorts over the last three years.
Band Connect CEO Abby McInturf told me she has been eying the program for a while, but the timing was right to jump in now.
Band Connect has been garnering great feedback, she said, from both patients and physicians in its ongoing clinical trials. She declined to name the two sites.
The company is also partnering with the U.S. Army on similar pilot deployments.
While Techstars offers generic accelerators in various cities across the world, Techstars Healthcare offers exposure to industry-specific partners: in this case, L.A.-based Cedars-Sinai Hospital, UCI Health in Orange County, Point32Health and UnitedHealthcare. Point32Health, based in Canton, Mass., is the $9-billion parent company of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and Tufts Health Plan and serves 2.2 million members. UnitedHealthcare, based in Minnetonka, Minn., contracts directly with more than 1.5 million physicians and care professionals and 6,700 hospitals.
“They are payors and providers, and we need both of those in order for the solution to work,” McInturf said. “We feel like they can best help us catalyze the momentum we have right now.”
McInturf, a graduate of University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning (DAAP), officially formed Band Connect in 2019. The company graduated — and received an investment — from UC’s Venture Lab, and later landed grant funding from locally based Main Street Ventures.
The company, she said, fills a void in the physical therapy and musculoskeletal rehabilitation space, McInturf said. The standard of care today includes paper handouts for patients, who then go home and “either do or don't do their exercises,” she said.
When they come back into the clinic, “the basic starting assumption for the PTs (physical therapists) is they haven't done any of their treatments.”
Band Connect’s platform allows physical therapists to create a personalized virtual treatment plan, paired with fitness equipment outfitted with sensor-enabled hardware to ensure patients are doing those exercises correctly.
Currently, Band Connect is testing equipment for upper extremity exercises (including for mid-back, shoulder and neck conditions). The company is in the early stages of developing a lower extremity-conditioned device as well (for chronic hip and/or knee rehabilitation).
The clinical trials are going well, she said, and Band Connect is onboarding new PT’s because of high interest. Compliance metrics and other data collection points are also strong.
“From a clinician perspective, we're hearing it's helpful to see that patients are actually doing their treatment, and if they're not, they have the ability to talk about why,” she said. “For patients, they're excited about the interfaces we've developed. They have the ability to understand what they're supposed to be doing.”
The Techstars cohort comes with $120,000 in equity financing. McInturf said that total completes Band Connect’s now-oversubscribed $500,000 pre-seed funding round, led by Cleveland-based JumpStart.
The company will likely raise a $2.5 million to $3 million seed round later this year to fund a targeted clinical and commercial launch.
The Techstars momentum will certainly help with that. Historically, on average, Techstars companies go on to raise more than $2 million of outside capital after the program, per the accelerator.
The cohort is scheduled to wrap with a demo day, or pitch competition, June 8.
“Techstars and our partners are excited to welcome Band Connect into our program to help them build upon and accelerate their journey toward transforming PT rehab,” Matt Kozlov, managing director of Techstars Healthcare, said.
Overall, Band Connect is the third Cincinnati company since 2021 to land a Techstars slot.
TinnCann, which lets its users chat 1:1 with athletes and experts in fashion, photography and music, led by Ryan Frew, graduated from Techstars Chicago in 2021.
