UB and VCAMP partner to accelerate health care software startups

BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Buffalo Institute for Genomics and Data Analytics (BIG) at the University at Buffalo is partnering with VCAMP to form a lean-startup health-care software venture accelerator that will assist in the university’s regional economic development efforts.

“This partnership is a great example of how UB can leverage its extensive resources – world-class faculty, specialized facilities and equipment, and well-trained students – to support the new startups in our community,” said Christina Orsi, associate vice president in UB’s Office of Economic Development.

“It’s about much faster, responsible access,” said David Thiemecke, managing director of VCAMP. “The partnership streamlines processes for startups to engage with world-class resources in Buffalo at a much earlier stage.”

“With BIG as a partner, health-care, safety and wellness software startups can build on tomorrow’s tools and expertise,” said Brian McIlroy, BIG executive director. BIG will offer in-kind packages that include leading-edge capabilities and consulting services, secure high-performance computing, storage, visualization, networking and health-care data that will improve their growth potential.

VCAMP plans to recruit five to 10 pre-seed-stage health-care, safety and wellness startups per year to Buffalo for a 14-week accelerator program to determine the validity of their software products.

“VCAMP provides a new way for our community’s health-care delivery system to solve problems and innovate,” Thiemecke said. “Successful pilot outcomes complete a key step in the life of young, high-growth companies before they begin to scale.”

The accelerator program will also create UB-sponsored opportunities for undergraduate and graduate student internships and expert mentoring, bringing the startup culture deep within the UB experience.

“This partnership builds on UB’s support of entrepreneur activity by offering students hands-on experience with startups and making New York State Hot Spot or STARTUP NY tax incentives available to the VCAMP companies. This is one of many exciting new partnerships UB is forming to accelerate the growth of technology start-ups,” said Orsi.

Interested startups, investors, mentors and corporate partners can contact info@vcamp.co and follow @VCAMPhealth or http://vcamp.co.

VCAMP is a private, venture fund-backed digital health accelerator located in Buffalo, New York. It couples the managing directors’ more than 18 years of experience in health IT startups with a network of more than 80 mentors to recruit pre-seed startups nationwide. As a launch member of the Global Accelerator Network (GAN) and an ally of StartFast, VCAMP brings best practices and relationships with more than 70 accelerators across six continents to Upstate New York. VCAMP also brings founders the best of Upstate New York through Upstate Venture Connect and the UNY50, and further connects them to scalable opportunities nationally through allies such as StartUp Health.

BIG is a genomic medicine initiative previously announced by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo. The effort leverages University at Buffalo expertise in clinical research, supercomputing, bioinformatics and genomics to translate research advances into clinical care in partnership with industry to drive economic growth in Buffalo and New York State.