The newly expanded, 3-city program has selected 9 early-stage Canadian companies transforming the future of healthcare
BOSTON, MA, NEW YORK, NY and SAN FRANCISCO, CA – September 1, 2022 – Today, the Canadian Technology Accelerator (CTA), a global initiative led by the Government of Canada’s Trade Commissioner Service, announced its third annual cohort of high potential, high growth digital health companies ready to tackle the U.S. market. These nine innovators are solving complex challenges in today’s post-COVID era. They are focused on reducing biomedical waste, streamlining cancer diagnostic and treatment pathways, making rapid and innovative diagnostics through simple breath tests, and reducing stress through advanced monitoring, and management of additional healthcare applications.
CTA Digital Health will enable founders raising their Seed to Series A financing to catalyze their growth across the United States by providing a unique blend of tailored introductions, workshops, mentorship, networking, and a capstone demo day. After a successful cross-country collaboration led by the Consulates General of Canada in Boston, New York and San Francisco, the 3-month program will once again offer opportunities to engage with the flourishing healthcare and innovation sectors in the three leading markets. The expansion of this program comes at a pivotal moment as the healthcare community continues to navigate the logistical, financial and psychological impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the shortage of healthcare human capital and resources. The post-pandemic era will face its own host of challenges that will require innovative digital health solutions to better manage and improve the quality of care.
Canada's digital health founders are making tremendous contributions to address the future of healthcare on a global scale.
Rana Sarkar, Consul General of Canada in San Francisco/Silicon Valley
After a highly competitive nationwide recruitment campaign, an evaluation committee comprised of venture capitalists, medical professionals and digital health leaders selected nine companies to participate in the program, including:
- AssistIQ is a software company that leverages data and AI to assist hospitals and their partners in reducing medical supply waste, costs, and carbon footprint. Developed by a team of serial entrepreneurs and healthcare leaders, AssistIQ’s software platform provides seamless tracking of disposable supplies while providing actionable insights to multiple stakeholders including clinical, purchasing, supply chain, and finance teams.
- Awake Labs is a SaaS startup on a mission to give everyone the mental health support they deserve. They work to support adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, a community that is often overlooked and underestimated. Their platform – which consists of a smartwatch app, a mobile app and a web dashboard – provides real-time and objective measures of stress to help increase the quality of life. Awake recently completed the UnitedHealthcare Accelerator powered by Techstars in Minneapolis.
- Breathe BioMedical is developing and manufacturing ground-breaking technology for breath analytics including the FDA-listed breath collection device, SohnoXB™. Breathe BioMedical has completed a proof-of-concept study demonstrating the technology’s ability to detect non-small cell lung cancer with accuracy of 86.1%. Their mission is to empower people with a simple breath test to provide early detection of cancer and other diseases.
- ConnectionPoint is the premier collaborative funding company for healthcare. With their CoCoPay platform, healthcare and assistive-device providers can offer crowdfunding to their patients as a secure and private way to pay for the best care they can offer. They have raised more than $250M through 200k+ campaigns in over 100 countries.
- Gray Oncology Solutions has a vision of a healthcare ecosystem with no resources wasted. They have developed GrayOS, an oncology operating system that helps healthcare organizations achieve true comprehensive care with the highest efficiency. Powered by AI and operations research-derived algorithms, the solution optimizes, automates and coordinates patient scheduling across each oncological intervention. This results in increased access to care, reduced patient wait times, increased patient/staff satisfaction, and ultimately superior patient care.
- HippoCamera is a patented digital reminiscence platform that is designed the way the brain works. It uses smartphone technology to mimic how the hippocampus supports the acquisition and retention of new memories, allowing users to remember events of their lives that would otherwise be forgotten. The founding team from Dynamic Memory Solutions, Inc. is a group of award-winning memory scientists passionate about applying neuroscientific advances to create practical solutions to combat memory loss.
- Paperplane Therapeutics designs and markets therapeutic virtual reality video games aimed at reducing pain and anxiety in children undergoing medical procedures. Their therapeutic solutions are turn-key, adaptive, scientifically validated, and equipped with user data analytics.
- Thrive Health provides a cloud-based digital health platform that enables healthcare providers, enterprises, educational institutions, and other organizations to quickly design and deploy care pathways (digital workflows) to improve patient outcomes, care navigation and efficiency across a wide range of acute and chronic healthcare experiences, as well as physical and mental wellness solutions.
- Verto Health‘s Digital Twin Orchestration Platform uses patented machine learning technology to consolidate multiple-source data and create normalized and contextual snapshots of patients as they move through the healthcare system. These patient snapshots – Digital Twins – can then be supercharged with tailored orchestrations to bring every patient to their best possible health outcome.
This year’s cohort reflects a national outreach, with representation from British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec, and New Brunswick. The cohort includes participants from diverse backgrounds and equity, diversity, and inclusion was prioritized when selecting the participating mentors and speakers.
The program will continue to partner with pioneers in the digital health community from across the U.S. In New York, companies will receive bespoke programming and mentor matching from Lauren McCullagh, a strategic advisory consultant with over 12 years working with startups to develop go-to market strategies with health systems. The cohort will also be supported in New York City through our collaboration with the HITLAB, a digital health research organization with strong ties to the digital health ecosystem, dedicated to hosting events, programs and discussions that improve access and delivery. The focus this year will be to build B2B partnerships and long term fundraising for cohort companies to compete and succeed in today’s ever-changing funding climate. In California, HealthTech Capital, a leading group focused on angel investors and corporate strategists investing in digital health and other healthcare technologies, together with Metis Lighthouse, a healthcare consulting firm that works with early-stage companies on strategic initiatives, will leverage their fundraising and market creation expertise to mentor the cohort companies by engaging thought leaders in market access and procurement. The cohort will also gain access to additional services including the B2B Sales 4 Startups education from experts like Kent Summers in Boston, pitch deck design services from Manhattan Strategies, and marketing expertise from Antenna Group.
I'm deeply impressed by the depth and breadth of talent joining our CTA program and supporting solutions that can and need to be applied now to address challenges that will benefit us all.
Rana Sarkar, Consul General of Canada in San Francisco/Silicon Valley
About the Canadian Technology Accelerator (CTA)
The CTA is a global business development program offered by the Government of Canada’s Trade Commissioner Service. Established in 2013, the CTA supports international scaling of high-growth, high-potential Canadian firms in the life sciences, cleantech, and information communication technologies sectors. The CTA has helped more than 840 participants across the globe raise more than $818 million in capital, $325 million in new sales, almost 1,400 strategic partnerships, and over 3,100 new jobs created. For more information, click here.
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