A D.C. accelerator from CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, the health giant dual headquartered in Baltimore and the District, is welcoming its largest cohort of young companies to date following a complete revamp of its program.
Healthworx Accelerator, a unit of CareFirst Inc.'s investment and innovation division, has selected 20 startups to participate in its three-month business development cohort this fall, compared with the range of five to eight companies in two prior iterations of the program. Each startup will receive a $25,000 equity-based investment from the Healthworx venture fund.
The surge in interest came after Healthworx condensed what had previously been a one-year program into 12 weeks.
Soo Jeon, the head of the accelerator, said a record 250 startups from across the country applied for this latest cohort largely because the program is shorter and more focused, and that's appealing to busy founders. For Healthworx, meanwhile, the restructuring allows the accelerator to reach more startups.
"It opens up a lot of opportunities for us to see what type of bold, bright ideas are out there," Jeon said. "The more companies that we're able to give the tools in their toolbox to be able to do this, [the more] it unites us by a common purpose."
The 20 startups selected for this year's cohort are from eight different states, working in such areas as aging, cancer care, brain health, digital therapeutics, women's health and other sectors within the health care industry. Sunday Health, an Alexandria startup that provides various testing resources and services for patients experiencing cognitive decline, is the only startup of the 20 based in Greater Washington.
All 20 will have access to an advisory board of health care experts, too, yet another change for this year. These experts will be on hand to help the founders refine their products, pursue clearances and refine marketing strategies.
The full list of companies participating in this year's cohort are:
- Agilix Health: Bedford, Massachusetts
- Alaffia Health: New York
- April Health: New York
- Architect Health: East Windsor, Connecticut
- Ayble Health: Boston
- Basys.ai: Cambridge, Massachusetts
- Cerula Care: Oregon (remote)
- Equity Quotient: Boston
- Expect Fitness: New York
- Gabbi: Portland
- Guaranteed Hospice: Los Angeles
- Juniver: New York
- Menda Health: Atlanta
- Paloma Health: New York
- Prospera: San Francisco
- Shimmer: San Francisco
- Sunday Health: Alexandria
- Syntax: Atlanta
- Thrivelink: St. Louis
- Verbal: San Francisco
The revamp of Healthworx Accelerator follows CareFirst's partnership with Johns Hopkins University and global investment firm Techstars, which announced the formation of a separate accelerator program called Techstars AI Health Baltimore in late August. Earlier in August, Techstars confirmed it would shutter its D.C.-based accelerator program for underserved founders by year's end because funding for the program has run out.
