Meet the healthtech startups in Techstars’ new AI-focused accelerator

Founders of emerging firms from Delaware to Buenos Aires have come to one of the healthcare industry’s main mid-Atlantic hubs to take their AI-enabled ideas to the next level. 

Global entrepreneurship programming provider Techstars on Monday unveiled the inaugural class of its AI Health Baltimore accelerator. The program, supported by a partnership with Johns Hopkins University and regional insurance provider CareFirst, focuses on startups using AI to tackle issues in various parts of the healthcare and medical system. The in-person components take place at Spark Coworking and wraps with a demo day on June 5. 

When it was first announced back in August, Techstars’ Adam Phillips said the in-person, roughly three-month program would provide participants as much as $120,000 in funding, along with mentorship, in exchange for about 6% to 9% equity. 

“The recent ‘blossoming’ of artificial intelligence has taken a number of folks by surprise, but AI has been around for a long time,” said Phillips, the managing director of Techstars’ other Baltimore-based accelerator with UpSurge Baltimore, at the time. “It will have massive implications for healthcare where accessing currently unstructured datasets will help providers, payers, and patients alike make better healthcare decisions.”

The cohort’s participants are pursuing solutions for all the constituents that Phillips mentioned. Meet the nine companies in this inaugural group, with descriptions drawn from Techstars’ announcement:

Instead of Phillips, this program operates under the supervision of managing director Nick Culbertson and program manager Eden Ryan. Phillips will be involved in this one as an investor in residence, Culbertson told Technical.ly.

Both of the accelerator’s leaders boast experience with Baltimore companies using AI solutions to tackle issues in different sectors: Culbertson recently exited his longtime role as the CEO and cofounder of healthcare risk-reduction company Protenus, which Alexandria, Virginia-based Bluesight acquired in January. Ryan is the former director of people operations at EcoMap Technologies, a Techstars Equitech Accelerator alum that incorporates AI into entrepreneurship resources-mapping platforms for clients including biomedical science associations.

Culbertson said he joined Techstars in late February, while Ryan came aboard in November. While he didn’t plan to join Techstars so soon after Protenus’ acquisition, he thought the transition made sense given his experience building a company using AI in the health tech world. 

Despite this pedigree and the accelerator’s location — the home of an Economic Development Administration-designated hub for medical technology and AI, as well as CareFirst’s own Healthworx Accelerator — the cohort includes no Baltimore region companies. Culbertson said that Techstars, Johns Hopkins and CareFirst representatives led this selection process. 

Techstars announced this accelerator amid a flurry of changes at Techstars that included laying off 17% of its staff and the closure of programs in partnership with JP Morgan. Culbertson said these issues didn’t give him pause, though, and reiterated his faith in the accelerator’s focus. 

“The thesis for our accelerator,” Culbertson said, “is we believe tech innovation and artificial intelligence will transform healthcare, improving industry economics while enhancing patient outcomes and well-being.”