BOSTON - MassChallenge, a global network of zero-equity startup accelerators, today awarded more than $200K in cash prizes to six elite digital health startups from the 2019 HealthTech accelerator.
“In our first three years we generated 270 partnerships that helped entrepreneurs impact millions of lives, earn millions in funding and revenue, and hire hundreds of employees,” said Nick Dougherty, Managing Director of MassChallenge HealthTech. “The 2019 cohort made exceptional progress, impacting millions of lives, securing over $26M in funding and $5M in revenue, and supporting over 400 jobs during the program.”
The cash prize winners were announced as part of the 2019 MassChallenge HealthTech Finale, which brought together more than 300 corporate leaders, government officials, policy makers, entrepreneurs, and innovation enthusiasts within the digital health community from around the world. The event featured a real-talk discussion about innovation from John Brownstein of Boston Children’s Hospital, John Halamka of Beth Israel Lahey, Lesley Solomon of Dana Farber Cancer Institute, and Robin Glasco of bambu.health. The event also included a fireside chat about the intersection of healthtech and sportstech from Laura Yecies of SyncThink (2017 MassChallenge HealthTech $100K Diamond Award winner), Isaiah Kacvyenski of Will Ventures, and Kate Sheridan of STATNews. Following the event, Jonah Comstock of HIMSSMedia interviewed the winning startups at the media stage of the Startup Showcase.
To select this year’s prize winners, MassChallenge HealthTech tapped healthcare industry experts to evaluate each startup based on their ability to demonstrate traction, growth, and impact. Over the six month accelerator program, 31 startups partnered with industry leaders to solve of healthcare’s massive challenges. Following the program, the majority of startups and partners will continue to work together.
MassChallenge HealthTech also awarded the top HealthTech partner with the inaugural “Champion of the Year Award” as nominated by the entrepreneurs of the 2019 cohort. Harvard Pilgrim Health Care has been a HealthTech partner since the beginning of the program, and their involvement has been highly appreciated by the 2019 cohort as well as previous cohorts. They also engaged heavily with the startups during the 2019 program, sharing insights on driving pilots within provider organizations and engaging with about 10 startups throughout their involvement as a partner.
$100K DIAMOND WINNER (& $10K WEHEALTH STARTUP CHOICE WINNER)
1upHealth (Boston, MA): Patient data aggregation platform for app developers, providers, and patients
$40K PLATINUM WINNER
GoGoGrandparent (Mountain View, CA): Helping older adults use on-demand transportation companies without needing a smartphone.
$40K PLATINUM WINNER
Pixm (Waltham, MA): Develops AI technology that uses visual recognition to detect zero-day phishing attacks.
$20K JUDGES’ CHOICE AWARD
Marigold Health (Boston, MA): Mobile app for anonymous text-based group psychotherapy.
$10K MITRE WOMEN IN DIGITAL HEALTH WINNER
Welnys (Jersey City, NJ): Makes workplace wellness easy.
GOODWIN PROCTER CHAMPION OF THE YEAR WINNER
Harvard Pilgrim Health Care (Wellesley, MA): Leading not-for-profit health services company serving members in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and beyond.
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About MassChallenge
MassChallenge is a global network of zero-equity startup accelerators. Headquartered in the United States with locations in Boston, Israel, Mexico, Rhode Island, Switzerland, and Texas, MassChallenge is committed to strengthening the global innovation ecosystem by supporting high-potential startups across all industries, from anywhere in the world. To date, more than 2,300 MassChallenge alumni have raised more than $5 billion in funding, generated more than $2.7 billion in revenue, and created more than 136,000 total jobs.
MassChallenge HealthTech Partners
Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the City of Boston, the Massachusetts Competitive Partnership (MACP), Vertex Pharmaceuticals, the Massachusetts eHealth Institute (MeHI) at MassTech, AARP, Accenture, Atrius Health, Beth Israel Lahey Health, Boston Children’s Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Cerner, Cigna, Cisco, First Republic Bank, GlaxoSmithKline, Goodwin Procter, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Massachusetts Executive Office of Elder Affairs, Massachusetts Health Policy Commission, Humana, Massachusetts General Hospital, MassMutual, Microsoft, Optum Ventures, OSF Healthcare System, Partners Healthcare Pivot Labs, Philips HealthWorks, Sanofi, Softserve, Suffolk Construction, Sunovion Pharmaceuticals, Takeda, TechSpring at Baystate Health, WeHealth, WilmerHale