Lebanon, NH: Celdara Medical, LLC announced today that participants in the inaugural DRIVEN Accelerator Hub Partner Program have collectively surpassed $100M in follow-on funding. Led by Celdara Medical and Simbex, and with seed funding from National Institute of General Medicine Sciences (NIGMS), the DRIVEN Accelerator Hub was established in 2018 with the mission to improve human health by increasing the number, quality, and success rate of biomedical startups.
DRIVEN includes major research institutions in the Northeast IDeA states (NH, VT, ME, RI, and DE), as well as a world-class external advisory committee representing over $120B in assets under management and $1T in market capitalization. During the DRIVEN Partner Program, nascent startups utilized these resources to develop cutting-edge solutions to real-world challenges in medicine. Since completing the program, the 15 participating companies have initiated four clinical trials, brought three products to market, been granted dozens of SBIR/STTR awards, received 23 term sheets from investors and partners, signed seven (pharma/biotech/medtech) partnering deals, and closed $68M in angel and venture investments across 14 financings.
“DRIVEN has done a lot, but to me, the most impactful initiative has been our Partner Program”, said Jake Reder, Celdara Medical CEO and Principal Investigator of the DRIVEN Accelerator Hub. “DRIVEN was launched with three years of NIH support. To so quickly reach $100M in follow-on-funding is fantastic. And it wasn’t one deal. A full 87% (13/15) of our Partner companies have since raised follow-on funds, and 68% of the total funding was equity-based. But funding is the means, not the end. These companies have since led numerous interventional clinical trials and brought products to the market. That’s how innovators and entrepreneurs help patients, and that’s why I’m so proud of DRIVEN and of these great companies. And they are just getting started!”
Julie Coleman, DRIVEN Program Lead and Director at Celdara Medical, remarked, “For me, DRIVEN has been a program that just keeps giving. We were able to work with highly motivated, intelligent, and innovative scientists (which was a lot of fun), and now we are able to watch these companies as they advance towards their shared goal of improving patient outcomes. DRIVEN company update calls are uplifting due to their continued successes! I look forward to what lies ahead for DRIVEN.”
Adapting DRIVEN’s proven model, Celdara Medical has recently partnered with the Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute (ARMI) to support its newly-created BioFab Startup Lab. Celdara Medical is committed to supporting entrepreneurs across the region and worldwide as one more way to improve human health.
About Celdara Medical, LLC
Celdara Medical was founded by Drs. Jake Reder and Michael Fanger in 2008 and is headquartered at the Dartmouth Regional Technology Center (DRTC) in Lebanon, NH. Celdara Medical builds academic and early-stage innovations into high-potential medical companies, identifying discoveries of exceptional value at the earliest stages and moving them toward the market. Celdara Medical partners with inventors and their institutions, providing the developmental, financial, and business acumen required to bridge discovery and profitability. With robust funding options, a diverse and high impact Programmatic pipeline, and partnerships with world-class academic institutions and industry leaders, Celdara Medical navigates all aspects of a complex industry, accelerating science to improve human health. Further information about Celdara Medical is available at celdaramedical.com.
About Simbex
Simbex is an experienced medical device and consumer health product design and development partner that excels in transforming the most complex ideas into game-changing commercial solutions. Our powerful combination of design and engineering know-how, data analytics and commercialization experience seamlessly integrate with our clients’ expertise to deliver innovative products while lowering development and market implementation risks. Simbex operates a federally funded technology commercialization center that helps medical device and consumer health innovators de-risk their product development and commercialization efforts. www.simbex.com
About DRIVEN
The DRIVEN Accelerator Hub is an NIH-funded consortium led by Celdara Medical and Simbex in partnership with leading research institutions in the Northeast, including Brown University, Dartmouth College, Maine Medical Center, MDI Biological Laboratory, the University of Delaware, the University of New Hampshire, the University of Rhode Island, and the University of Vermont. DRIVEN has assembled an External Advisory Committee (EAC) comprised exclusively of investors (representing over $120B in AUM) and buy-side business development leaders (cumulative market cap exceeding $1T). DRIVEN was supported by NIGMS UT2GM130176. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.