The number of companies in Health Wildcatters’ portfolio is up to nearly 90, with the newest batch of startups joining its health tech-focused accelerator program.
The Dallas-based seed accelerator has unveiled its newest batch of 10 startups ranging from telehealth to medical devices, making up its ninth cohort.
“The ten startups are led by a diverse group of entrepreneurs,” said Hubert Zajicek, Health Wildcatters CEO, in a statement. “I couldn’t be more excited to introduce such a diverse and capable set of entrepreneurs to DFW.”
In addition to mentoring and access to potential investors, Health Wildcatters’ 12-week program comes with its own financial investments in the cohort. According to its website, Health Wildcatters offers $30,000 for an 8% equity stake in the company, along with follow-on and convertible note investment opportunities of up to $380,000.
The newest cohort continues a trend that started with last year’s cohort, the ability for the accelerator to expand its geographic reach as virtual programming has become more common during the pandemic. Members of the current cohort hail from across the U.S., as well as Germany and Italy. Zajicek also noted that half of the companies have female founders.
The only local company in the 2021 cohort is AllergenIQ, a Southlake-based digital health platform focused on allergy testing and management founded by Pediatric Allergist Dr. Nana Mireku. The company recently finished a stint at the Think Lab accelerator at Pegasus Park, a partnership between TechFW, the UT Southwestern Office of Technology Development, and national life sciences nonprofit network LaunchBio.
Since it was founded in 2013, Health Wildcatters’ portfolio of 88 companies has collectively raised more than $200 million. A number of its local companies have been making recent moves. In July, Plano digital health startup MediBookr was acquired by StratiFI Health for an undisclosed amount. That same month, Dallas caregiver support platform Cariloop raised a $15 million Series B round led by Noro-Moseley Partners, with plans to triple its 75-person team over the next two years. Dallas medical device startup Articulate Labs is currently working on a pilot study of its neuromuscular electrical stimulation device at Switzerland's Clinique Romande de Réadaptation.
“(We’re) just slowly building our reputation beyond U.S. borders and getting DFW on the map elsewhere,” Zajicek said via email.
Check out the newest Health Wildcatters cohort below (descriptions provided by the accelerator):
- A LaRue Company (Winston-Salem, Nc.) – Designer of the LaRue Surgical Evacuator and Clean Removal Process to aid surgeons in providing patients a safe, rapid, less invasive removal procedure gelatinous and similar materials from the body or surgical site.
- Aliform (Aachen, Germany) – Developing minimally-invasive surgical devices for treating skin conditions.
- AllergenIQ (Southlake)– Digital health telemedicine platform that provides comprehensive integrative care, support, and treatment for children who have allergic conditions, including food allergies.
- Birkeland Current - SOVRINTI (Waco) – Changing the future of independent aging and home-based care by scaling senior functional assessment to support earlier clinical diagnosis, person-centered home care, and timely care interventions.
- Oral Genome (Carlsbad, Calif.) – Send in your saliva and receive personalized insights about your oral health and recommended preventative measures.
- Parrots Inc. (Seattle) – Creator of “Polly,” an inclusive platform using AI and machine learning to give people with neurological disorders a smart voice and telecare.
- RECORNEA (Udine, Italy) – is a pre-clinical stage medtech ophthalmic company developing therapeutic corneal implants.
- Lung Healing Technologies, Inc. (Winnetka, Ill.) – SmartDrain monitors the CO2, O2, and pressure in a chest drain to reduce hospitalization costs by over $4k per patient or $1B per year in the US alone.
- Spectryx (Palo Alto) – Transforming the drug development industry with high-throughput, label-free, ultra-sensitive automated sensors.
- Sympal (Boston) – Clear aligner company disrupting the orthodontic industry.
You can check out the 2020 Health Wildcatter cohort here.
