Three Valley-based medical device and health care technology startups will gain knowledge and resources to bring their products to market as part of the newest cohort for the Mayo Clinic and ASU MedTech accelerator program.
The accelerator, a flagship program of the Mayo Clinic and the ASU Alliance for Health Care, provides emerging companies with entrepreneurial curriculum and business development plans to accelerate investments and product commercialization. It launched programming this week for its latest cohort.
The three Valley-based startups participating in the accelerator include: Anuncia Medical Inc., Navi Nurses and TruLite Health, according to a news release.
Tempe-based TruLite Health developed Truity, an enterprise software platform that combines health equity information with patient-specific data to provide greater care for diverse populations.
Scottsdale-based Anuncia Medical was founded in 2014 in collaboration with Boston’s Children Hospital and spun out of Alcyone Therapeutics in 2018. The company recently gained FDA clearance for its ReFlow System Mini for treatment of patients with hydrocephalus and other cerebrospinal fluid disorders that require shunting.
Navi Nurses, of Phoenix, is a platform that connects patients with on-demand nurses. The company, which has more than 150 nurses on its platform and reached $1.2 million in revenue in 2022, plans to expand into three additional markets by the end of the year, according to the release.
The company’s founder, Jasmine Bhatti, spent eight years as a nurse at the Mayo Clinic.
“To me, participating in the accelerator is like coming back to where it all started. Applying for the accelerator was not only meaningful personally, but it felt like the most natural thing,” Bhatti said in a statement. "There is nothing more important to me than building my company with the support of community-focused organizations that deeply value people and support imagining and building new, better ways of doing things.”
Mentoring and networking provided
Participants in the accelerator also attend mentoring and networking sessions. Startups will remain part of the accelerator program’s support network — which provides guidance and collaboration — over the next year.
“These entrepreneurs are tackling some of the most pressing challenges in health care, and we're excited to help bring their ideas to life to improve patient outcomes,” Steven Lester, associate medical director of the Mayo Clinic’s department of business development and co-founder and chief medical officer of the MedTech Accelerator, said in a statement. “Together, we can push past the boundaries of what's possible today to advance and distribute new, life-changing and sustaining health care solutions.”
The three Arizona-based startups join companies from Spain, France, Kenya, the United Kingdom and South Korea in the accelerator program.
Other companies in the cohort include:
- Spain-based ABANZA, founded in 2017, provides surgeons with an alternative for soft tissue fixation in the sports medicine field.
- CardioStory, headquartered in San Francisco, is building a digital platform based on non-invasive filling pressure technology for heart failure and kidney disease patients.
- Mediwhale Inc. is a South Korean analytics company that developed a retinal-based artificial intelligence platform for real-time cardiovascular, renal and metabolism risk assessment and the detection of age-related eye diseases.
- Memory Lane Games, from the United Kingdom, created a digital reminiscence platform that turns memories into games, increasing positive social engagement for people with dementia.
- Therapixel, of France, specializes in design and commercialization of AI-based medical imaging software, with the goal of delivering pertinent information to health care professionals.
- Zuri Health, of Kenya, is a virtual health platform providing affordable and accessible health care services to patients across Sub-Saharan Africa via a mobile app, website, WhatsApp bot and text.
