Call now open for participants in “CRAASH Barcelona 2022” program
<p>Projects developing medical devices, digital health and diagnostics in the BioRegion of Catalonia can submit their proposals and train with experts from the CIMIT accelerator (Boston). </p>
Biocat has opened the call to take part in the 5th annual CRAASH Barcelona, acceleration program, which facilitates the acceleration of healthcare innovations towards commercialization and clinical practice, in collaboration with CIMIT (Boston), the most important accelerator in the sector, which has promoted more than 1,000 projects in 20 years.
The program, with a hybrid format combining in person and online sessions, is geared towards startups and projects with researchers and entrepreneurs from or based in Catalonia. The projects must be related to the fields of medical devices, digital health or diagnostics and have TRL 3-5 (proof of concept/initial clinical trials). Companies that have already been created can also submit proposals if they are looking for a healthcare application for their technology and/or to find/validate their business model.
Expert mentors from all over Europe and the CIMIT will guide the selected projects over the course of the three-month program (September-December). This year’s participants will validate their technology and how it fits the market in some of the best healthcare ecosystems in Europe (Catalonia, Spain and other European countries like the Netherlands and Germany) and the United States (Boston). Plus, new this year, each team will have an investor who will track the project’s progress and have one-to-one meetings.
- Find out more and register for CRAASH Barcelona. You have until June 26!
- Do you have any doubts? sign up for the informative webinar (May 11 and June 7)
From laboratory to market in three phases
The program is divided into three separate phases: the first one serves to validate the solution, the second immerses participants in various European ecosystems and the third gives them a first-hand look at the US ecosystem in Boston, one of the most powerful in the world.
- Phase one - Validation. The teams establish their value proposition, validate their solution and analyze how well it suits the healthcare market through interviews with various stakeholders. In this phase, each group is assigned a mentor (a successful entrepreneur from the healthcare sector, expert in public and private funding or expert in commercialization) to accompany them throughout the program. This phase will take place online and in person beginning in September.
- Phase two - Immersion in Europe. At this point, the participants will do a deep dive in the Catalan, Spanish and Dutch life sciences and healthcare ecosystems. The teams will polish their pitches to investors and get the chance to forge connections with top startups through a collaboration with the MedTech accelerator in Germany. This phase will take place completely online and last two months: October and November.
- Phase three - Immersion in the United States. Participants will take a virtual immersion in Boston to discover one of the strongest health and life sciences ecosystems in the world. This phase will be carried out virtually in the month of December. After a year, the teams that often travel to Boston will be able to present their second candidacy by meeting the main stakeholders in person and presenting their projects by American investors.
35 CRAASH Barcelona projects secure over €20 million
The 5th edition of CRAASH Barcelona is taking place in 2022 with a track record that demonstrates its success: the 35 projects that have taken part in previous editions have secured over €20 million in funding. This capital has allowed the accelerated projects to launch 7 products to market and create 77 new jobs.
Pol Solà, co-founder of Vincer.ai (participant in CRAASH Barcelona 2021), highlights how this Biocat program helps build solid projects for the ecosystem: “CRAASH Barcelona is an excellent process of deconstructing and building up solid, validated projects”.
Xavier Puñet, of Blaap (participant in CRAASH Barcelona 2021), highlights the value of the expert guidance: “CRAASH Barcelona is a demanding program, it makes you look at key aspects of your project and it is extremely important to be guided in the process by top-notch experts.”