MassMEDIC Ignite alumni break $100M funding milestone

Embr Labs makes the wearable Wave device for cooling relief from menopausal hot flashes. [Image courtesy of Embr Labs]

CoreMap’s $23 million in recently closed funding officially puts MassMEDIC’s Ignite alumni from the past three years over the $100 million mark, the medtech accelerator said.

Fifty medtech startups have participated in MassMEDIC’s Ignite since the program relaunched in 2019. The program matches startup founders with mentors in leadership positions at New England medtech organizations, makes introductions to investors and offers networking and experiential training to boost the region’s industry.

“The experience of the program, the network of contacts and the MassMEDIC community of support continues to be of great value to us,” Sarah Kalil, co-founder and CEO of Burlington, Vermont–based CoreMap, said in a news release.

The success at MassMEDIC’s Ignite is part of an overall trend of accelerators boosting young medtech companies. Los Angeles–based MedTech Innovator, for example, saw its alumni close $1.5 billion in funding across 99 companies in 2021 alone.

CoreMap leads all Ignite alumni with $33.5 million raised, according to MassMEDIC, followed by two companies from the 2020 cohort: VeraDermics (more than $20 million) and Embr Labs ($13.5 million). San Antonio, Texas-based VeraDermics is a pediatric wart treatment developer, while Boston-based Embr Labs sells a wrist-cooling wearable device for menopausal hot flash relief.

Alva Health co-founder and CEO Sandra Saldana [Photo courtesy of Alva Health]

More than 40% of founders in the relaunched Ignite program are women, including 60% in the most recent year. That includes Sandra Saldana, CEO and co-founder of Alva Health, the developer of a wearable stroke monitor that won the 2021 MedTech Innovator startup competition’s grand prize.

Another Ignite alum, Newton Centre, Massachusetts–based Agile Devices, won FDA clearance for the steerable, deflectable Angler microcatheter just last month. The microcatheter is Agile Devices’ first product.

“It’s such a pleasure to work with the organizations and individuals in Ignite and see the cutting-edge technologies they are developing,” MassMEDIC Chief Operating Officer Rachel Robinson said in the news release. “The success our Ignite alumni have had, including Sarah Kalil and her team at CoreMap, is a testament that Ignite and partnerships with our MassMEDIC members are working to bolster the startup community in the greater New England region.”