Tiffany Wilson, CEO of GCMI & T3 Labs
“If large companies aren’t investing at early stages anymore and venture capitalists are not investing at an early stage anymore, there’s significant gap between sources of grant dollars and then later stage gross equity financing.
[The reason] why GCMI was founded was to address this gap in the Southeast — to help the innovation happening here. Bring together the ecosystem around medtech innovators, recognizing that it really does take a village to take a device from concept to bedside.”
GCMI and T3 Labs CEO Tiffany Wilson recently spoke with Hypepotamus’ Muriel Vega about GCMI’s new Medtech Accelerator intended to become a point of convergence for multiple medical device ecosystem resources, institutions and investors in the Southeast.
Becton, Dickinson & Company will support the first company to complete the GCMI Medtech Accelerator program through a milestone driven process and grant. Each startup taking part in the accelerator will be selected by a team including GCMI, an industry partner, investor and other industry leaders.
Muriel writes, “During their time at the GCMI accelerator, startups will receive mentoring from partnering companies in key areas, including IP protection, preclinical studies, introduction to potential clients, and FDA submissions. The selected startups will stay on board up to a year, depending on the milestones discussed during admission.”
The first startup joining the rolling program is Linear Health Sciences, a medtech startup changing the game for valve technology and medical tubing.
“Our acceptance into the Medtech Accelerator program is tremendously validating for the progress we have made to date,” said Ryan Dennis, MD, the CEO and co-founder of Linear Health Sciences. “It demonstrates the excitement among clinicians and the investment community about the Orchid SRV and our approach to solving a widely recognized problem in nursing and vascular access care.”
By providing a source of funding and industry knowledge of what it takes to bring a novel medical technology from concept through design, prototyping, preclinical trials, and FDA approval, the accelerator will meet a serious need for the medical device community.
Read more about the new GCMI Medtech Accelerator via the full article in Hypepotamus here.
Contact GCMI to connect with experts across the Southeast’s rich medical device ecosystem who can provide guidance along the journey from concept to commercialization.