Dreamit Launches Startups Into Health And EdTech Industries

NEW YORK and PHILADELPHIA, July 20, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading global startup accelerator Dreamit announced today the culmination of its Spring 2016 cycle, accelerating 25 high­-potential startups from around the world through its Health and EdTech verticals and into industries hungry for innovation.

Over the course of 16 weeks, startups benefited from mentorship and introductions to key decision-makers at established industry players through a series of Customer Immersion events. All together Dreamit Health and EdTech startups pitched at 18 Immersions hosted by marquee customers such as Penn Medicine, Independence Blue Cross, Merck, Pfizer, Blackboard, and Penn State.

Startups also participated in intensive weekly discussions with industry and category experts on topics ranging from marketing and fundraising to Healthcare and EdTech specific issues including privacy, regulatory issues and more.

"I could not be more pleased with the progress shown by our Spring 2016 cohort. Dreamit's unique emphasis on customer connections and commercial validation has had a powerful impact on these more mature startups," said Dreamit CEO Avi Savar. "In less than 4 months we've seen companies sign on new customers, announce new funding rounds, and dramatically increase the number of opportunities in their pipelines, all without having to relocate or put their operations on pause. They came in prepared to leverage the access we offered them and the results have been outstanding."

For the first time this year, Dreamit took a more customer­ focused approach to the traditional accelerator demo day. Following a bi­-coastal investor roadshow connecting entrepreneurs with more than 100 venture investors during 300 face-­to-­face meetings across New York City, Boston and the Bay Area, the startups pitched at industry conferences where thought leaders, investors and potential customers were joined together, offering broader exposure and networking opportunities.

Dreamit EdTech startups were showcased at the first ever Innovation Hub at BbWorld, Blackboard's annual education technology event for educators and administrators. Dreamit Health startups presented at MedCity CONVERGE, the premier event for innovation in healthcare.

"Young companies need customers and they need capital. While one­-to-­one investor meetings are more productive for both investors and startups, providing deeper insight than a traditional demo day, an industry focused showcase can be a valuable customer-­facing experience for startups to cap off an intense program like Dreamit," Savar said.

Dreamit Health partners included Penn Medicine, Independence Blue Cross, and Zimmer Biomet, with a prestigious Blackstone Innovation Grant enabling Dreamit to expand the size of its cohort this cycle. Dreamit EdTech launched as a new vertical this year in partnership with Penn State University.

 Dreamit Health Spring 2016 Cohort

• Addicaid: Helps payers & providers tackle chronic addiction, reduce the cost of care & manage population health with data­-driven addiction treatment
• Admetsys: Automated, high­-precision diabetic control systems for hospital and surgical care
• Cellepathy: Distracted Driving MDM that uses artificial intelligence & mobile sensors to prevent crashes & lawsuits with patented technology to differentiate passengers from drivers
• CircleLink Health: Applying SaaS to $15B market for chronic care management between office visits, unlocked by a new Medicare reimbursement
• DNAsimple: An online platform that allows genetic researchers to find the samples they need and donors to contribute to scientific studies independent of location
• InquisitHealth: Peer-to-peer mentoring solution used by payers and providers to improve health outcomes for patients with diabetes, pre-diabetes, asthma, HIV, and CKD
• Keriton: IoT solution to automate Pumped Breast Milk management for Neonatal ICUs (NICUs) to improve nurse productivity
• Kermit: Returning the balance of power to hospitals in physician preference items for cost reduction and improved patient outcomes
• MedAware: Utilizing physician practice patterns to identify and alert on and reduce medication errors in real time
• MedStack: A cloud developer platform to drive the creation of patient­-centric, integrated and compliant healthcare apps at a third of the typical cost and cycle time
• Neofluidics: Simplified microfluidic tools for drug discovery & research, point of care testing, & industrial fluid analysis reducing reagent use by 90%+ while increasing quality and decreasing time
• Prevnos: Reducing the cost and complexity of cancer diagnostics through a new hybrid Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) test 
• Somatix: Enables real-­time identification and measurement of smoking, drinking, eating, and other hand-­to-­mouth gestures, using the sensors on smartwatches and wristbands
• Suggestic: Delivering personalized, actionable and relevant nutritional suggestions by combining evidence­-based health guidelines, crowd wisdom, and machine intelligence
• Wellth: Allows health insurance companies and hospital systems to pay costly chronic disease patients to take better care of their conditions by applying behavioral economics' loss aversion techniques

Dreamit EdTech Spring 2016 Cohort

• 101: An interactive, mobile­-first platform that develops STEM problem solving skills
• CampusESP: Helps colleges leverage parent and family involvement to improve student success
• Lessoncast: Transforms how teachers improve what they do in the classroom, enabling schools to see & improve how they spend $8B/yr on teacher development
• PeopleGrove (formerly CampusKudos): SaaS platform for schools and companies to develop private professional communities to support their young people and position them to succeed
• Prompt: Making people better writers through personalized feedback
• Ruvna: Enables schools to locate and account for their students in real­time during an emergency
• Study Abroad Apartments: Marketplace that helps thousands of students, interns, and young professionals from around the world get apartments abroad
• StudyTree: Technology to transform education with a streamlined collaboration system using AI to facilitate in­person study groups and peer tutoring
• Tassl: Engagement metrics for powering networks and building relationships
• University Beyond: Recruitment and management platform for collegiate brand influencers

About Dreamit
Ranked one of the top 10 accelerators in the world by Forbes, a top investor in healthcare by CBInsights, and a top 20 most active venture investor by the National Venture Capital Association and PricewaterhouseCoopers, Dreamit focuses on bringing the right people together to drive progressive innovation and real business velocity.  Dreamit has launched more than 275 startups that have gone on to raise in excess of $275 million and are collectively worth in excess of $1.5 billion, including LevelUp, SeatGeek, BioBots, Biomeme, Adaptly, Meerkat and more.

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SOURCE Dreamit