MedTech Innovator (MTI), the world’s largest accelerator of medical technology companies, named this year’s Grand Prize Winner, Samay Health. The company received $350,000 in non-dilutive funding.
 
This is the tenth year that the culmination of the MTI Accelerator program was hosted at The MedTech Conference. With a 5% acceptance rate, this year’s MTI Accelerator included 65 companies, selected by a process involving hundreds of industry experts from among 1,300 applicants, training and graduating a cohort of global best-in-class startups with the highest potential for success and impact on patient outcomes.
 
The Grand Prize Competition took place in Toronto on October 16, on the main Keynote Stage at The MedTech Conference, which had a record-breaking attendance of 4,350 attendees. 
 
At the final competition, each finalist pitched their value proposition and answered questions from a panel of experts including, Mirren R. Mandalia, Senior Director, Global Business Development, Johnson & Johnson Medtech, Sonal Patel, Vice President, Business Development Strategy/M&A Integration/Venture, Zimmer Biomet, Inc., Townsend Goddard, Senior Vice President, Global Head of Business Development, Olympus Corporation, and Joseph Smith, Chief Scientific Officer, BD,
 
The live conference audience of industry leaders voted in real-time to select Samay as the winner, following presentations by them and the other four finalists: BrainSpace (Seattle), Flow Medical (Chicago), Juniper Biomedical (Worcester, Mass.), and NeuroBionics (Cambridge, Mass.), who each received $25,000 finalist prizes.
 
Samay, from Mountain View, CA, and Medellín, Colombia, is the first Latin American company accepted to MedTech Innovator in its 12-year history. Samay is developing a novel acoustic resonance patch for COPD diagnosis, management, and intervention.
 
“We are honored to make history as the first Latin American startup to not only be accepted but win the MedTech Innovator competition in its twelve years of existence,” said Maria Artunduaga, CEO and founder of Samay. “During the program, we had access to a top-notch group of sponsor companies and dedicated individual mentors who engaged with us regularly on ideas and concepts from regulatory to technology, distribution, finance, business, and beyond. The Grand Prize recognition is not only for Samay but for all the advisors, mentors, minority programs, physicians, engineers, and talent in North and South America that believed in us and our vision for a better future for COPD patients everywhere.”
 
SanaHeal (Cambridge, MA.) won the MedTech Innovator Execution Award & Virginia Rybski Memorial Award, presented jointly by MedTech Innovator and AdvaMed Accel. The Execution Award winner was selected by the audience at The MedTech Conference and SanaHeal received $25,000.
 
The Execution Award recognizes strong leadership teams with value-adding innovations and a demonstrated track record of successfully executing their plan to improve patient care. The other finalists were AccurKardia (New York), Akeyna (Boston), iCE Neurosystems (Washington), and Vonova (San Diego).
 
“I am grateful to have had the opportunity to participate in the MedTech Innovator Accelerator program, which provided us incredible opportunities to interact with like-minded entrepreneurs and to receive valuable counsel from industry mentors. I am super excited to have won the execution award. The prize money will help support our ongoing research and development activities,” said Hyunwoo Yuk, Founder and CTO of SanaHeal.
 
Ozlo (Boston, MA) won the Best Video Award and $10,000, competing against fellow best video finalists Samay, PLEXaa (London), and Salvia BioElectrics (Eindhoven, The Netherlands) as determined by a live vote of the audience at The MedTech Conference. All 65 MTI cohort companies were eligible for this award.
 
This year, MTI tapped over five hundred subject matter experts to evaluate thousands of applicants and mentor the best-in-class 65 companies participating in MTI’s flagship four-month U.S. market-focused accelerator program. 
 
Featuring 45 early-stage and 20 mid-stage medical device, diagnostic, and digital health companies from around the globe, the 2024 cohort company leadership teams received unparalleled mentoring, networking, and access to the resources that only MTI’s world-leading ecosystem of strategic manufacturers, investors, healthcare providers, payers, patients, and other industry stakeholders can offer.