MedTech Innovator Launches New Accelerator Program

MedTech Innovator, a nonprofit based in Westwood that runs medical accelerators, has unveiled a new biotech accelerator program. For the program’s first company cohort, BioTools Innovator is accepting applications from early-stage biomedical and biotech firms.

The submission period ends on April 30th. The three-month accelerator program for the first batch of ten companies is set to begin this summer. Unlike several accelerator projects, BioTools Innovator will have a competition of four finalists competing for up to $200,000 in cash and in-kind services. A live audience vote will decide the grand prize winner.

Paul Grand, the Chief Executive of MedTech Innovator, said in the launch, “The launch of BioTools Innovator is the next step in our journey toward transforming health care through accelerating critical new innovation.” The Frederick Gardner Cottrell Foundation, established by Tucson, Ariz.-based Research Corporation Technologies Inc., provided funding for the BioTools accelerator program, as did BroadOak Capital Partners of Bethesda, Md.

The MedTech accelerator was established by Research Corporation Technologies in 2012 and was run internally for four years before being spun off as a nonprofit in 2016. The first MedTech program was targeted solely at medical device firms. Following the spinoff, the inventor established offices in Westwood.

The accelerator broadened its scope to include companies in the pediatric medical technologies industry and then opened a small accelerator office in Singapore to attract East Asian biomedical firms. Around 90 companies are participating in these three acceleration programs, according to Kathryn Zavala, chief operating officer for MedTech Innovator. With the addition of 10 new biotech companies through the BioTools Innovator program, that number will reach about 100.