The Actuator, Australia’s venture-backed national accelerator for medical technologies today announced their second cohort of promising medtech seed ventures.
Supported by Australian Industry Growth Centre, MTPConnect and a plethora of ecosystem partners, The Actuator’s second cohort of companies will be put through their paces in a rigorous industry-led 15-month technology and entrepreneurial skill development accelerator program. Along with training, mentoring and connectivity to local and global networks, the program will provide up to $200,000 seed investment, and up to $2.5 million further funding through partners, Artesian.
After an intense selection and due diligence process, eight high-impact medtech startups were selected to participate in the 2018 Round 2 Actuator Accelerator program.
The second round of applications was extremely competitive and the quality of applications was exceptionally high, with 70 early-stage startups seeking to accelerate the commercialisation of their medtech innovations.
Capitalising on the Nation’s existing research, service and product development strengths, The Actuator will bring in the very best of Australia’s medtech and innovation system to prepare teams for clinical trials, advanced manufacturing and at-scale technology development.
The 8 successful participants are:
- TerraBlue XT – Medical grade, non-invasive, fully automated wearable system backed by an IoT/AI platform to predict, detect and manage epilepsy, scalable to other chronic neurological disorders.
- Curatek – A wireless disposable patch that continuously monitors respiratory rate to aid early warning of patient deterioration
- Stelect – A single use, novel catheter design for accurate stent selection the first time, every time.
- Augmented Bionics – Non-surgical ‘wearable’ alternative to cochlear implants.
- Rehabswift – A restorative brain-computer interface (BCI) to kick-start stroke recovery.
- Flomatrix – A novel catheter design aimed to reduce the current high PIVC failure rates
- Hexagon Innovation – Hexagon Innovation offers wearable technology that relieves worry about elderly people by detecting unusual events, falls or distress wherever they occur.
- Lenexa Medical – pressure injury (PI) prevention and detection in the operating theatre empowering clinicians to deliver targeted wound care interventions.
“Our mission is to support our home-grown talent within their local innovation ecosystems, and build incredible successes. We are eager to support such innovative and dynamic medtech startups, emerge out of Australia,” says Dr Buzz Palmer, CEO of The Actuator.
“The Actuator is an exciting initiative set to expedite technology transfer and research translation. MTPConnect congratulates the successful participants of the second round and we look forward to tracking the impact of these medical technologies.
“MTPConnect funded the Actuator in the 2016 round of our Project Fund Program, which was developed to bring together all players in the sector, to drive collaboration and commercialisation; overcoming identified constraints and barriers in the sector,” says Dr Daniel Grant CEO of MTPConnect.
The Victorian Government helped The Actuator to establish its headquarters in Melbourne and Minister for Innovation and the Digital Economy Philip Dalidakis said its programs were providing invaluable support to startups in a key sector.
“The Actuator is helping nurture innovative medtech startups as they take the next step in turning their great ideas and research into commercial success stories,” Mr Dalidakis said.