Atlanta’s Global Center for Medical Innovation (GCMI) will be opening a second startup accelerator for medtech companies, in conjunction with Israel’s Rambam Health Care Campus. This accelerator builds on the efforts of GCMI, a Georgia Tech affiliate, to accelerate medtech startups which began last year with their first such program, the A1 Accelerator.
Rambam, which is the largest medical center in northern Israel, connected with GCMI through local Israel-promoting organizations such as the America Israel Business Connector, Conexx, and the Consulate General of Israel. Rambam will contribute funds towards the new program.
Atlanta and Israel are logical partners in furthering medical technology innovation. The Southeast led the country in medtech employment from 2012–2014, with industry-related employment in the region growing by 5.1 percent in the same period. Atlanta is already strong in health IT, health technology and related industries.
Meanwhile, Israel is tied with the UK for second-highest medical device deal share on a country-wide basis. The GCMI hopes to attract some of those innovative startups to Atlanta.
“Israeli engineering and entrepreneurial expertise regularly translates to medical devices capable of improving patient outcomes while driving the overall cost of care down in many parts of the world, including the United States,” GCMI CEO Tiffany Wilson said in a statement.
To build a pipeline, Wilson tells Hypepotamus that a “Phase 0” assessment process will be set up by GCMI at the Rambam campus in Haifa, Israel. There, they’ll be able to identify high-potential startups and funnel them into the Atlanta-based program.
Once in the program, the startups will gain access to funding, U.S. commercialization expertise, and help with medical-specific challenges such as preclinical trials, FDA clearance and more, in addition to general market readiness and product development.
Unlike many accelerators, the GCMI program will not form formal cohorts, but run on an ad-hoc basis. Startups will receive customized plans ranging from six to 12 months based on their specific needs. They don’t need to relocate to Atlanta but should be prepared to spend some amount of time here during the program.
The accelerator will launch formally on October 10th.
