The gBETA program for medtech startups is seeking applicants from across the globe on or before March 20 for its spring session.

The seven-week gBETA Medtech virtual accelerator runs April 18 through June 14. gBETA is a program of startup accelerator Gener8tor and the University Enterprise Labs business incubator in St. Paul, Minnesota, with mentorship support from Mayo Clinic, the University of Minnesota and Medical Alley Association. The program’s founding sponsor is Boston Scientific; UEL and Gener8tor also get support through a cooperative agreement with BARDA DRIVe.

Up to five startups will be selected for the medtech program, which covers medical devices, diagnostics, healthcare software, biotechnology, drug discovery and delivery and more. They’ll participate in webinars, regular meetings with the gBETA Medtech team, mentor and investor swarms — like speed dating sessions with founders, investors, serial entrepreneurs, technical professionals, board members and industry experts — and then a demo day and pitch night, followed by ongoing support after the program concludes.

While other Gener8tor accelerators invest $100,000 in exchange for equity from its companies, there’s no funding offered to gBETA Medtech program participants, gBETA Medtech Director Jackie Mejia said today.

“We’re just here to help,” she said. “We require no fees and no equity.”

The program supports economic development in particular industries and specific geographic areas. While applying to the gBETA Medtech program, Mejia said, startups should also consider applying to gBETA programs open to startups across all industries in a city near them, with options ranging from San Juan, Puerto Rico to Anchorage, Alaska.

“The application is pretty simple. I don’t think it should take too long,” she said, though she suggested applicants prepare their responses in a separate document and copy them over to avoid the risk of losing unsaved work and to have those responses on hand for applications for other programs.

The gBETA medtech program application and more information can be found here.

The 2021 gBETA Medtech companies were Rhaeos (Evanston, Illinois), OpalGenix (Carmel, Indiana), Breathe99 (Minneapolis), UptimeHealth (Charlestown, Massachusetts) and Xtraction (San Antonio, Texas).

In fall 2021, gBETA Medtech launched an accelerator program specifically for Black founders.

This post was updated on March 11, 2022, to include the extended deadline of March 20.