WearTech is 2022 Arizona Innovation Challenge winners
Staff Reports | Digital Free Press
The Partnership for Economic Innovation, a collective of business and community leaders focused on accelerating Arizona’s economic opportunities, is announcing that two of its WearTech Applied Research Center projects have been selected to receive the 2022 Arizona Innovation Challenge grant.
The grant is part of the Arizona Commerce Authority’s annual $3 million dollar commitment to advance companies from startup status to market domination, according to a press release.
“The applied research model works to accelerate the development of life changing technologies,” said Kathleen Lee, director of applied research centers for the Partnership for Economic Innovation. “The AIC grants will only further accelerate these projects and begin impacting lives for the better.”
As AIC grant winners and WearTech Center partners, both teams at CenSyn and Movement Interactive follow the applied research model which accelerates product development and commercialization via collaboration with public and private sectors partners. The teams will also connect with industry experts and key players to take their products to the market, the release states.
CenSyn is a digital med-tech company focused on developing technologies to help healthcare practitioners accurately and efficiently diagnose brain, health-related disorders like seizures and concussions.
“The Arizona Innovation Challenge grant will enable us to help save patient lives and greatly reduce treatment costs for healthcare providers,” said Ayushi Patel, CEO of CenSyn. “The goal is to help health systems expedite diagnosis of conditions such as seizures, strokes and concussions from hours to minutes. We look forward to working with experts that will support and guide us to the commercialization of our neuro platform.”
Movement Interactive is a wearable technology developer that works to address undiagnosed concussions and unreported falls through its patented Hiji Band and Hiji Sense.
“Through the Arizona Innovation Challenge grant and our partnership with the WearTech Center, the Movement Interactive team will be able to further collaborate with experts in neurology and technology to help improve people’s quality of life,” said Dr. Eric Luster, founder and CEO of Movement Interactive. “We are working hard to ensure our device is accurately detecting and measuring head impacts and falls while remaining comfortable and stylish for long-term use.
WearTech is 2022 Arizona Innovation Challenge winners
The AIC was designed to advance innovation and technology commercialization opportunities in Arizona by helping early-stage ventures scale. The 10 awardees will participate in the ACA’s Venture Ready Accelerator, connecting companies with serial entrepreneurs, high-level executives, and subject matter experts.
Participants will be eligible to receive up to $150,000 in non-dilutive funding and complete a series of panels and workshops within the subsequent 12 months of the award. The Accelerator helps startups refine their business plans, improve go-to-market execution strategies, and increase investor readiness.
Since 2011, the ACA has selected 125 AIC awardees from over 2,000 applicants. The awardees were selected from a pool of more than 100 applicants from different sectors like technology and life science, capping a process that began five months earlier.
