HealthNest is a newly launched digital health incubator located in mainland China hoping to attract top tech talent from both sides of the Pacific Rim.
Surprisingly, the founding organization behind HealthNest is the Louisiana Business Incubation Association (LBIA), a group established to promote alliances among incubators, government agencies, and professional organizations in order to promote the growth and diversification of the Louisiana economy.
HealthNest in located in scenic Hangzhou, about a 30 minute high speed train ride outside of Shanghai. You can apply for the HealthNest accelerator on the group’s website.
The program is three months in duration, but founders are only given approximately US$1,575 each, with a maximum of three founders/team (US$4,725) in exchange for 5-8 percent equity stake.
The first US-China tech accelerator, InnoSpring is based in Silicon Valley and was launched earlier this year by Silicon Valley Bank in joint partnership with both US and Chinese VC. InnoSpring also launched with a seed fund backed by Kleiner Perkins, Northern Light VC, GSR Ventures, China Broadband Capital and TEEC Angel Fund.
MedCity News recently had a great piece featuring the emerging medical technology market in China, which is exploding to say the least, in which a couple very important points were emphasized. First, the market for medical device companies is huge, with 13,000 such firms. Of these, 3,500 are Class I device manufacturers, 7,600 Class II, and 2,300 Class III. Second, the political establishment truly does pick winning industries in China, and only recently has the country’s outgoing President Hu Jintao made a point of verbalizing the importance of investing in the growth of the domestic medical device industry. This formal political acknowledgement should not be understated and will undoubtedly lead to a boom in the Chinese medical device sector.
