A few months ago, James Mayo’s perception of Orlando started and ended at Walt Disney World.
However, the former British mile champion and founder of medical tech startup SM24 is at the start of a four-month stay in Lake Nona, the master-planned community on the opposite side of Orlando as Disney World. Now, Mayo sees a wide range of opportunities to work with Lake Nona’s concentration of hospitals, gyms and performance institutes, he told Orlando Inno.
SM24 is one of six companies selected for the leAD Lake Nona Sports & Health Tech Accelerator’s third cohort. After a month-long virtual session that began in mid-April, the six companies have come from as far as Europe and as nearby as Orlando to receive mentorship and coaching from leAD in an effort to ramp up their growth.
Here are quick descriptions of the six startups:
- Encore: This New York-based firm is leveraging blockchain technology to build decentralized loyalty programs so teams can engage fans more effectively, increase revenue and create ways to monetize. Encore creates digital assets that fans control and use to unlock unique experiences, discounts and rewards.
- Gemini Sports Analytics: This Miami-based company helps sports teams win more games by using athlete data better. Its no-code predictive analytics platform helps non-technical executives better acquire, develop and manage their athletes.
- Icaro: This Orlando-based business uses the power of light technology to increase blood flow, stimulate the mitochondria in cells and increase the production of nitric oxide involved in vasodilation — the widening of blood vessels. This results in numerous health and wellness applications from post-workout recovery to increasing cognitive function.
- SM24: The Scottsdale, Arizona-based firm is developing a stick-it and-forget-it wearable patch with a user-friendly app that provides noninvasive, immediate and continuous glucose monitoring. Launching with glucose, the SM24 GO ecosystem also has the power to measure lactate, stress and hydration.
- Soarce: This Orlando-based business makes sustainable athletic wear that's better than conventional fibers. Soarce is re-engineering algae into a heat-managing and low-carbon alternative to synthetic plastics used to make activewear today.
- Wavy: The Groningen, Netherlands-based firm offers personalized AI health assistant that uses continuous biofeedback monitoring and music to lower stress levels. The Wavy assistant collects data from wearables to track beats per minutes, heart rate variability and heart electrical signals, and provides music recommendations to destress the body, along with sharing data with medical professionals.
Landing a spot in a leAD cohort is no easy task. The accelerator receives 600-700 applications for each cohort, meaning only the top 1% are accepted, Thomas Rudy, principal of leAD and Tavistock’s Lake Nona Health Tech Fund, told Orlando Inno.
Of course, there can be big benefits for the companies that make it. The quality of the mentors Orlando-based Soarce LLC has been able to access through leAD is unparalleled by other accelerators and startup programs the company has been through, co-founder and Chief Operating Officer Mason Mincey told Orlando Inno.
“From the first conversations, we could tell it was a different caliber of program,” said Derek Saltzman, Soarce co-founder and CEO.
The six companies will work at leAD Lake Nona until a demo day in mid-September.
LeAD announced in 2020 it would partner with Lake Nona master developer Tavistock and expand from Berlin to Central Florida. Since then, 12 startups have completed the program, raising more than $20 million combined. Five cohort companies landed investment through the $30 million Lake Nona Health Tech Fund.
Of course, the program offers benefits for the Central Florida region as well as businesses. It can help local companies — such as Orlando-based Nestre Health & Performance Inc. — secure funding and grow.
The growth of tech-focused companies is important for the region, as it can lead to the creation of high-wage jobs. Plus, these companies can provide innovative solutions that benefit other businesses in the area.
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