Adelaide-based international business accelerator Innovyz has opened applications to the first of its industry-focused nine-month Innovation programs, with applications now open for high growth businesses in the health tech sector.
The incubator and accelerator program first kicked off back in February 2012 with $600,000 in backing from the South Australian state government, with 45 companies graduating from the program since then.
Program director Greg Eaton told StartupSmart there will be four intakes this year spaced three months apart, with each program running for nine months.
“Traditionally we’ve been doing a 13-week accelerator program. They’ve been remarkably successful, but we found we’ve spent a significant amount of time post-course to take the companies to market and to wrap up investments,” Eaton says.
“It took a lot of time and 45 companies to realise we should extend the accelerator to a nine month program.
“What we’re planning now is that at the nine month mark the companies will be eminently investible, including products in the market, full-blown information memos and we’ll also introduce them to the ASX – the ASX is now one of our sponsors.”
The first of the nine-month streams covers the health tech and medical devices space. Applications are open from now until March 16th for businesses working on pharmaceuticals, procedures, clinical areas, medical devices and health software, along with other health-related innovations.
Successful applicants will be announced roughly one month later, with the program running from new premises in the Tonsley Innovation Precinct, which is located on the old Mitsubishi factory site in Adelaide’s southern suburbs.
Later streams will cover the advanced manufacturing, water and applied technologies sectors. Aside from existing startups, applications are open to individuals, universities, existing companies, corporate spinouts and research centres.
Each stream will comprise of between eight and 10 companies, with the companies receiving three full weeks of intense mentoring by experts from around the world. According to Eaton, each stream is likely to cost between $1.2 million and $1.5 million to run, with backing from both the state government and big-name investors in each industry.
While the medical stream comes at a time when the health tech startup scenes are booming in both Melbourne and Brisbane, Eaton says building collaboration is a key focus.
“I don’t think there’s a growing interest so much as a growing realisation that collaborative research will get them where they want to go. Health tech has been strong in South Australia for some time, but the collaboration hasn’t been as strong as perhaps it should be,” he says.
“So we get the chief executives to interact and discuss their problems in front of each other in order to help find collaborative solutions.”
Eaton says that applications are not restricted to South Australia, and that a number of candidates from regional cities and rural areas have already applied.
“We have one potential candidate we’re speaking to from Townsville and two from regional Victoria. We’re expecting a large number of applicants, and the selection process includes some of the mentors, who are appropriate for choosing candidates for medical devices scene.”
Health tech startups interested in finding out more of applying can do so here.
Andrew Sadauskas is a former journalist at SmartCompany and a former editor of TechCompany.
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