Future Forward: How Medical Alley Starts is Accelerating Global Innovation

We know the road to success for startup organizations is daunting. For every “yes,” investors reject up to 500 companies. Twenty percent of all businesses fail in year two. By year five, nearly half are gone. 

Medical Alley Starts® is transforming this challenging landscape by providing unparalleled resources and support to health and technology startups around the world. Through a comprehensive ecosystem of funding opportunities, strategic partnerships, and guidance, Starts is helping startups navigate the complexities of the healthcare market and scale innovations globally.

Transformation

Medical Alley Starts is a venture platform to accelerate the creation and growth of healthcare startup organizations. Since the program’s inception in 2021, Starts has supported nearly 3,000 organizations from more than 40 countries, annually engages 250 investment funds, while delivering nearly $1 billion in value through:

• Global Investor Network: Connecting startup organizations to investors from pre-seed to growth.
• Global Corporate Partner Network: Facilitating partnership, M&A, joint ventures, and other engagements with healthcare’s global leaders.
• Ready Reserve Entrepreneur Volunteers: A network of experienced entrepreneurs ready to lend their expertise to your venture.

Transformation — true transformation — is achieved through the collaborative power of these networks, driving innovation forward, accelerating growth, and ensuring that groundbreaking healthcare solutions improve patient outcomes.

Committed to Serving More 

According to McKinsey’s “What to expect from medtech in 2024,” analysts expect the pace of innovation to grow this year, led by AI and machine-learning-enabled devices. The growth of Starts is poised to meet this increasing demand across all healthcare sectors.

Starts is on track to serve more than 2,000 companies each year. This continued expansion will enable a richer, more robust platform to support our partners and deliver solutions with greater reach.

Earlier this year, Starts and Mayo Clinic Platform announced a collaboration to support emerging AI-enabled companies participating in the Mayo Clinic Platform_Accelerate program. Starts will offer its suite of services to program graduates for one year after completion.

“Healthtech innovators are bringing forward ideas that can improve care for us all. This collaboration will help some of the most promising startups get market ready, with the guidance of world-class clinical and research leaders,” said Eric Harnisch, Vice President Partner Programs, Mayo Clinic Platform.

These strategic alliances, in addition to many others, will transform the innovation landscape in Medical Alley, making Starts the “easy button” for emerging healthcare companies to get to market faster and create a bigger impact throughout the world. 

Future programs will continue to expand our support network and will turbocharge innovation in Medical Alley. 

Focus on Investment

Silicon Valley’s share of venture capital has declined every year since 2006 and the United States’ global share of VC has decreased from 70% to less than 50%.

Bottom line — funds must cast a wider net to find superior opportunities.

This year, Medical Alley launched Starts Venture Partners — an initiative to facilitate global deal sourcing by connecting innovative healthcare startups with a diverse network of investors and strategic partners. The first Starts Venture Partners include:

1. iGan Partners, Canada's largest healthcare-focused VC firm.
2. Capita3, an early-stage venture capital fund investing in women-led startups in the health and technology sectors. 
3. Bread & Butter Ventures, a early-stage venture capital fund investing in digital and health technology. 

Bread & Butter Ventures 2024 Digital Health Thesis states, “We believe that working closely with the team at Medical Alley will give our firm and our portfolio companies an incredible advantage in the digital health space through network, experience, and expertise.”

As Starts Venture Partners grows, so does our network of international investors and corporate partners, enhancing Medical Alley’s ability to identify and support high-potential healthcare innovations from around the world.

Medical Alley Starts is also a key component of Minnesota MedTech 3.0, a federal ‘Tech Hubs’ designation to promote “Smart MedTech” innovation. Medical Alley Starts would leverage our extensive network and resources to source investment capital, forge strategic partnerships, and attract top talent. 

While Minnesota MedTech 3.0 was not awarded additional funding, we will continue to build on our legacy as the leader in life sciences, ensuring Minnesota’s success reverberates across the globe. Starts will continue to be a resource to Minnesota MedTech 3.0.

Introducing the Medical Alley Academy

One of the most exciting developments within Medical Alley Starts is the pending launch of the Medical Alley Academy. As Starts has evolved, we've continuously aided organizations with similar challenges: getting regulatory approval, raising capital, and aligning with the right strategic partners. As our global partners asked us to help educate them early and often, we saw a need, and created the Academy. 

The Medical Alley Academy will educate and engage founders and entrepreneurs globally, providing them with skills to identify, evaluate, develop, assess and articulate their value proposition, financing needs, differentiators, and create compelling narratives for stakeholders. 

By bridging knowledge gaps and streamlining the path to success, the Medical Alley Academy will enable a new wave of innovators to bring their solutions to market, ultimately improving patient outcomes and advancing global health.

This program will launch in late 2024.

Data-Focused Future

As the future of Medical Alley Starts continues to evolve, data will be at the core of our strategy.

Globally recognized as the epicenter of health innovation and care™, this focus will enable the Medical Alley Network to harness insights, optimize processes, and ensure solutions make the greatest impact. By leveraging generative AI, our partners will be able to anticipate emerging trends, streamline operations, and/or identify potential challenges before they arise. 

This data-centric approach will not only enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of our initiatives but also empower our partners to innovate with greater precision and confidence. 

Ultimately, the expansion of Starts means life-saving innovation reaches people faster and more efficiently. With an ever-growing network of partners and resources, we are committed to ensuring that transformative healthcare solutions are accessible to those who need them most, driving better health outcomes on a global scale. 

READ: Medical Alley's strategic vision for the future of healthcare.