Sprint and Techstars, a startup accelerator, announced the launch of the Sprint Mobile Health Accelerator in Kansas City. The Sprint accelerator will provide promising mobile health startup companies with three months of mentoring and up to $120,000 in seed capital.
Kansas City has become a hub for animal health, life sciences and healthcare technology companies. An influx of companies from the medical technology, crop science, animal health and pharmaceutical industries, in addition to private and university laboratories, has created a vibrant community for healthcare innovation.
"Wireless innovations are helping people around the world by improving health care, empowering people with disabilities and promoting wellness," Dan Hesse, CEO of Sprint, noted in a statement.
Sprint provides M2M solutions not only for healthcare but also for other industries, such as fleet management. In fact, Sprint plans to maintain it 2G network over the long-term, even as AT&T moves to scrap 2G, because most M2M devices currently rely on 2G for communications.
Techstars opened for business in 2007. Even though the firm has yet to spawn a billion-dollar company, Techstar told Dani Fankhauser of Mashable.com that it has several companies in its greenhouse that could break $1 billion very soon. Two famous billion-dollar companies that began within startup accelerators include Dropbox and Airbnb.
According to Fankhauser, Techstars accepts only the top one percent of applicants to its program. "We save the VC community time and make seed deals flow more efficiently for them," explained David Cohen, Techstars’ founder and CEO.
An entrepreneur whose startup is accepted into a Techstars program has a better chance of getting a meeting with a venture capital firm. Also, Techstars actively markets some of its startups, promoting its own program in the process.
The Sprint Accelerator will accept applications through Dec. 6. Finalists will receive notification in early January 2014, and the three-month accelerator program starts in March.
Edited by
Alisen Downey
