7 startups in the Science Center’s first Digital Health Accelerator class

The University City Science Center announced the first class of its Digital Health Accelerator, which includes seven health tech startups.

The six- to eight-month program, backed in part by the state, is geared toward startups that are past their early stage and have already received investment and/or revenue. It feels like a natural second step after an early-stage accelerator like DreamIt Health. Each participating startup will get office space in the Science Center/Drexel incubator Innovation Center@3401, mentorship and $50,000. The Science Center will not take any equity in exchange for the program.

Five of the seven startups were already located in Philadelphia. One founder said that a program like this makes it especially easy for startups to stay in the city after graduating from an early-stage accelerator.

“After DreamIt, you’re like, ‘Great. Now what?'” said Biomeme cofounder Max Perelman. “All we need is a place to hunker down and finish our raise.”

That’s how to keep startups here after DreamIt: free space and the support that comes with it, said Perelman, who moved Biomeme into Graduate Hospital makerspace NextFab after DreamIt Health ended. Biomeme now has its own office in Old City and also has access to the Science Center’s labs as part of the Digital Health Accelerator.

The participating startups are:

• Biomeme, a DreamIt Health grad that is developing a mobile DNA test
• Fitly, a DreamIt Health grad that helps families plan and purchase healthy meals via mobile or web app
• Life Patch, a PennApps Accelerator grad that offers a non-invasive temperature monitoring tool, run by Penn undergrads
• Curbside Care, a Wharton MBA startup that wants to be “Uber for healthcare” and that has raised $20,000
• UE LifeSciences, a Science Center company that has developed a no-touch breast scan
• Keosys, a French medical imaging IT firm
• Pulse InfoFrame, a Canadian healthcare analytics company that participated in the Science Center’s Canadian health IT accelerator