OrthoWorx is announcing that it garnered significant financial support in order to establish AcceLinx, a new medical device accelerator. Specifically, Kosciusko County (Indiana) pledged up to $1 million over six years, the City of Fort Wayne offered $450, 000 over the same period and Allen County pledged $150, 000.
“Our region has an excellent track record of innovation. We see in AcceLinx an opportunity to invest in further strengthening our environment for innovation and new company formation. We believe this initiative will keep talented individuals here to develop their concepts and businesses, and will utilize the many suppliers and service providers already in place. We see it as a potential win-win for the county—more jobs through supporting and attracting start-ups and the opportunity to strengthen the overall economy, ” Kosciusko County Commissioners President Ron Truex said in the July 6, 2016 news release.
“It is a privilege to partner with Kosciusko County and the City of Fort Wayne in this endeavor which will help grow our area’s economic base. This investment in our region is a sign of continued confidence for our business community. OrthoWorx and AcceLinx will benefit from northeast Indiana’s innovative climate and our talented community that will make up their employee base, ” Allen County Commissioner Therese Brown said.
OrthoWorx CEO Sheryl Conley told OTW, “AcceLinx will be a multi-stage accelerator, so we won’t focus on just one stage of business development. Further, we will have a concentration in Musculoskeletal Health, leveraging strengths in orthopedics, spine and biologics. We will be very selective in determining who will be part of AcceLinx, focusing our resources on teams developing products and platforms with the greatest market potential. We aren’t trying to be all things to all people, we want to leverage the immense strengths in these fields that can be found here in our region. While we don’t expect all the start-ups selected to locate in Warsaw, we anticipate they will find significant value in accessing and utilizing our unparalleled orthopedic resources. Also, any start-up that comes into AcceLinx must have been found to be investment-worthy through our vetting process. If the start-up qualifies, we will pair them with an investment partner to assure that they have the resources needed to execute their development plans and achieve critical milestones. That will help the start-ups get to critical mass faster and it also de-risks potential investments by strategic acquirers because of the level of industry expertise used to diligence and guide the start-ups.
“Because the OrthoWorx staff and the potential AcceLinx staffers all have deep experience in the orthopedic industry, we have a worldwide network of surgeon contacts. We expect to put that network to good use by engaging with surgeons as experts to critique developing technologies and to make connections with start-ups that need interested clinicians to test their products.”
