New Baltimore AI healthcare accelerator

Newsletter for August 28, 2024

There's a new accelerator in town. Techstars is partnering with Johns Hopkins University and the insurance company CareFirst to bring a new artificial intelligence-focused healthtech accelerator to the region. Get the details on that new program below.

Also, keep scrolling to learn about different raises and grants in the area, including a multi-million dollar grant from the White House for cancer research at Johns Hopkins. They've been busy.

— Kaela, Technical.ly lead reporter in Baltimore and DC

Programming for the just-launched Techstars AI Health Baltimore will be in person and is intended for early stage startups in the biotech, healthcare and medical sectors using AI.

Open to startups globally, it’s a 13-week program, and founders will receive up to $120,000 in funding from Techstars, in return for around 6% to 9% equity.

“The recent ‘blossoming’ of artificial intelligence has taken a number of folks by surprise, but AI has been around for a long time,” program managing director Adam Phillips told me. “It will have massive implications for healthcare where accessing currently unstructured datasets will help providers, payers, and patients alike make better healthcare decisions.”

➡️ Learn more about the new accelerator here

With a $21 million federal grant that's part of the Biden administration's Cancer Moonshot, a Johns Hopkins research team is developing a tool to better remove tumors and detect if cancer cells are left behind.

“Enabling a successful first surgery and ending it with a negative margin — when there are no cancer cells left behind — means that you are not only giving more years to the patient but sustaining their quality of life, as well," said Emad Boctor, director of JHU's Medical UltraSound Imaging and Intervention Collaboration Research Laboratory.

There's also a new fellowship for social entrepreneurs in the city, and public schools across Maryland will soon be getting funding for energy upgrades.

➡️ Get details on all the latest Baltimore money moves

Venture capital trends prove it: life sciences is big right now. Some people even say it’s threatening to dethrone software as the king of technology. You’ll hear lots more about this during September, when the topic will be a special focus for our newsroom as our editorial calendar theme.Support this reporting while elevating your brand awareness by underwriting Technical.ly Life Sciences Month!

Your investment gets your logo and intro atop each story we publish in the series. You’ll reach up to 75k+ social followers, 45k newsletter subscribers and an average of 5k+ page views per series per market. Take advantage of our new self-service option, where you can create and finalize your campaign online — or reach out to sales@technical.ly to find out more.

➡️See offer details and sign up for Life Sciences Month

• The man charged with killing the tech entrepreneur Pava LaPere is expected to plead guilty on Friday, following his guilty plea Monday in a separate trial for his attempted murder of a Baltimore couple. LaPere, the founder of local startup EcoMap Technologies, left an outsize legacy. [Baltimore Banner/Technical.ly]

• Loyola University Maryland is introducing two accelerated graduate programs focused on business leadership and accounting. [Loyola]

• Gov. Wes Moore will soon announce new efforts to bring more private sector jobs to the state, per Maryland Secretary of Commerce Kevin Anderson. [Baltimore Biz Journal]

• The ACLU of Maryland is calling for policies to better restrict law enforcement's use of facial recognition technology. [Baltimore Sun]

• Maryland Kids Code law, which aims to protect children's privacy online by limiting data collection, may be vulnerable. A federal appeals court’s decision targeted California's law, on which ours is based on, because of free speech concerns. [Maryland Matters]

• New Profit, a venture philanthropy organization, opened applications for its Emerging Leaders cohort designed for people aged 21-25. [New Profit]