BOSTON—February 10, 2021—MassMEDIC, the Massachusetts Medical Device Industry Council, announced today the six finalists in its 2020 MedTech IGNITE Virtual Accelerator program. Over the past year, 22 startups participated in the MedTech IGNITE program that offers mentorship, networking and master classes with experts in medical device corporate strategy, financing, legal, regulatory, and product design. The six startup founders will compete at a live pitch event for cash prizes on Wednesday, February 24th.

“We are proud of the 2020 IGNITE cohort of startups from across Massachusetts and around the globe. Over the course of the program, we’ve watched the founders hone their pitch, build their networks and advance their venture’s technology. It’s been exciting to see this group mature and we look forward to watching their future progress,” said Brian Johnson, President of MassMEDIC. “We are grateful to our sponsors, mentors and faculty for their support of IGNITE. In just two years since relaunching the MedTech IGNITE accelerator, more than 35 start ups have completed the program and collectively secured over $20M in financing.”

At the live pitch event, six judges will select the top two winners. Our judges are:

· Darshana Zaveri, Managing Partner, Catalyst Health Ventures

· Peter K. Stebbins, VP, Business Development, Medical Devices, Johnson & Johnson Innovation Center Boston

· Jennifer Griffin, VP Industry Strategy and Investments, Mass Life Sciences Center

· Christos Monovoukas, VP, Global M&A Lead / Business Development, Olympus

· Jeff Champagne, General Manager, Emerging Categories, Kohler

· Ashley Wittorf, Resident Operating Partner at Revival Healthcare Capital

The six IGNITE finalists are:

Beacon Bio: Founded by Nicole Black, Beacon Bio aims to turn up the volume on the eardrum through novel materials and 3D printing approaches to tissue regeneration. Our team's first innovation, PhonoGraft, aims to reduce the invasiveness of tympanoplasty procedures for damaged eardrums and to improve patient healing and hearing outcomes.

Biomembretics: Founded by Todd Astor, MD, Biomembretics is focused on the development and commercialization of 3D precision designed biomimetic microfluidic membrane filters that directly integrate into kidney and lung failure devices, transforming the efficacy, safety, cost, and versatility of these life-saving therapies.

Cellens: Co-founded by Fiona Wang , Jean N. Pham, and Dr. Igor Sokolov, Cellens is committed to bringing clarity and confidence to patients and physicians through noninvasive cancer detection. We strive to advance the current standard of care by offering an easily integrable suite of products in cancer detection.

LivOnyx: Founded by Carmela Mascio, LivOnyx is passionate about infection prevention and saving lives by developing a rapid, fully automated hand sanitization system to reduce the spread of resistant bacteria, dangerous viruses, and spores while sparing hand health.

Nesa Medtech: Founded by Sreekar Kothamachu, Nesa Medtech is transforming women’s health by developing a revolutionary minimally invasive, safe, effective and uterus-preserving technology to treat symptomatic uterine fibroids.

Walkky: Founded by Or Zilbershot, Walkky is an AI solutions company focused on cardiovascular diagnosis. Our proprietary approach to analyzing bio-signals presents results that make sense to the physician and bring peace-of-mind to the patient. We offer our unique platform to medical device companies.

About IGNITE:

The MedTech IGNITE Program is a virtual accelerator offering an experiential training, mentorship, and networking curriculum, to attract and nurture the next generation of medtech founders and entrepreneurs. IGNITE was relaunched in 2019 with support from a grant from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center (MLSC) and our sponsors, Alira Health, Boyd Technologies and Propel. Several cohort members won significant prizes including MassChallenge and the BRIght Futures Prize, and to date, collectively have secured more than $20M in financing.

The MedTech IGNITE 2020 cohort includes:

· Agile Devices (Wellesley)

· Beacon Biomimetics (Cambridge)

· Biomembretics (Boston)

· Burnie, Inc. (Boise, ID)

· Cellens (Medford)

· CreatSens (Tarragona, Spain)

· Cosm (Toronto, Canada)

· Embr Labs (Boston)

· FeinsRing (Boston)

· Incasa Healthcare (Wellesley)

· LivOnyx (Allston and Lowell)

· Medsix (Boston)

· Nesa Medtech (Bangalore, India)

· POP DOC (New York)

· Qanik DX (Ontario, Canada)

· RBI Medical (Boston)

· RevMedica (New Haven, CT)

· Stratagen Bio (Cambridge)

· UV Light Care (Boston)

· VeraDermics (Waltham)

· Walkky (Brookline)

· Xander (Somerville)

# # #

About MassMEDIC:

The Massachusetts Medical Device Industry Council (MassMEDIC), an organization of more than 300 manufacturers, suppliers, research institutions, and academic health centers, promotes the unique interests of the Bay State’s growing and vibrant medical device sector. Through a variety of programs, informational seminars, advocacy campaigns and other projects, MassMEDIC provides medical device manufacturers and suppliers with information on industry trends and regulatory policies and creates forums that allow members to exchange ideas and information on issues affecting the industry. For more information on MassMEDIC, visit www.massmedic.com and follow us on LinkedIn.

Media Contact: Helen Shik

Shik Communications LLC

617-510-4373

ShikPR@MassMEDIC.com