Tampa Bay Wave and the University of South Florida will launch a healthtech accelerator program in 2024.
The nonprofit announced the new program, HealthTech|X Accelerator, Wednesday at a kickoff event. The initiative comes from a collaboration with USF and a $2 million grant from the United States Economic Development Administration. The collaboration seeks to further the Tampa Bay area’s tech ecosystem and develop it as a health tech hub.
“By combining our expertise, our networks and talents, we believe that we can build a healthtech accelerator program that can be a top program in the U.S.,” Linda Olson, the CEO and founder of Tampa Bay Wave, said in a speech at the kickoff event.
The accelerator will use the USF Health’s Center for Medical Learning and Simulation, or CAMLS, and the Tampa Bay Wave Venture Center for programming and resources. Richard Munassi, a managing director at Tampa Bay Wave, will lead the program.
Haru Okuda, a CEO, physician, educator and the executive director of CAMLS, has seen facilities worldwide, but he hasn’t seen many like CAMLS, he said. The facility, combined with Tampa’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, which he describes as the “next Austin, Texas,” will solve an issue he sees in healthtech creation. Healthtech products can’t be made in isolation from the medical space or the entrepreneurial space, he told Tampa Bay Inno.
“The power is bringing individuals that are equally motivated to address and solve these problems and really connecting the innovators with the end users so that the technologies that are created are meaningful and usable in the real health care environment,” Okuda said.
The accelerator is modeled after Tampa Bay Wave’s accelerator, which lasts for 90 days and provides networking with resources like mentoring, coaching and training. The involved companies will receive support afterward, throughout their later funding rounds, according to the release.
The Tampa Bay Wave has several other business accelerator programs. In September, it announced the LatinTech Accelerator, a new initiative for Latino or Latina founders. It also has a fintech accelerator program, which launched 15 new startups in September, and a CyberTech accelerator.
USF is a recognized national leader in high-impact research and innovation, according to the release. CAMLS is a 90,000-square-foot center that houses health care simulation for students and professionals. It has an annual revenue of $15 million. It also has previously ranked as one of the top 10 university patent producers in the country.
