Four companies, including a startup developing a wearable device to help reduce the number of fatal police shootings involving people with mental health conditions, were selected for Northern Kentucky-based SoCap Accelerate’s sixth cohort.
The six-week accelerator program, which kicked off in March, is tailored to health innovation companies. The goal is to utilize community resources and social capital — including potential customers, advocates and investors, as well as access to grants, product development and testing, legal and accounting assistance and marketing support — to offer real opportunities to pilot products, create customer connections and take businesses to the next level.
The spring cohort will wrap with a virtual demo day at May 4.
The cohort includes:
- A.A.R.O.N. Wearables Technology: Assisted Abilities Responders On-call Network, better known as A.A.R.O.N., is developing a GPS-wearable device that notifies police when a person with a diagnosed mental disability becomes a “person of interest,” in order to aid officers in their decisions regarding use of force. The goal is to reduce fatal shootings for this population – 21% of fatal police shootings are of people perceived to have mental-assisted abilities. The company’s founders are experienced entrepreneurs with backgrounds in management consulting, wellness coaching, banking, engineering, supply chain management, precision manufacturing, policing and diversity, equity and inclusion. Valda Freeman-Karmo, the company’s president, spent 14 years at Procter & Gamble and now works as a management consultant.
- CaringPort: CaringPort is a platform built for in-home care agencies that allows those companies to pool their resources. The idea is to increase caregiver retention, access to more caregivers and access more patient referrals.
- Re.Doctor: Re.Doctor is developing an artificial intelligence-moderated smartphone-based remote health monitoring system to provide early information about potential health risks, before they become medical conditions.
- Omniboom: Omniboom, founded in 2017, is an iPaaS, or integration platform as a service, company that focuses on creating intelligent event-based integration solutions. Omniboom provides organizations a way to connect their information, offering a simplified experience for both technical and non-technical users through its signature platform, Omniplexus.
SoCap, founded in 2020 and housed at Northern Kentucky University’s Health Innovation Center, counts Mercy Health, Northern Kentucky University and St. Elizabeth Healthcare as partners. It's led by executive director and entrepreneur Rico Grant.
To date, SoCap alumni — which include Kare Mobile, Band Connect, Carefeed, Safewave, Epiphany, Re-Assist and Soundtrace, a 2023 “Startup to Watch” — have raised more than $2.5 million in capital.
