Launchit Ventures is a newly launched venture studio that aims to bridge the gap between a founder with an idea and the reality of bringing a healthtech product or service into the market.
The Hamilton-based venture studio plans to partner with researchers, entrepreneurs, industry veterans, and other parties who have great healthtech ideas, but need additional support and expertise to commercialize them. Applications to Launchit Ventures are currently open to startups and prospective entrepreneurs-in-residence.
The venture studio plans to partner with people who have great healthtech ideas but need additional support and expertise to commercialize them.
By combining company building with venture funding and co-founding healthtech startups with selected partners, Launchit Ventures hopes to “develop new businesses faster and with less risk.” Ultimately, the venture studio wants to “improve people’s well-being through innovation.” To achieve this, Launchit Ventures is currently seeking “the next fantastic idea just waiting for our partnership, skills, and financial support to enter the marketplace.”
Launchit Ventures is backed by a team that includes Jamie Harsevoort and Frank Naus of Lumedi, a Hamilton software company that handles the administrative side of clinical research through its platform. Harsevoort is Lumedi’s founder and president, while Naus is Lumedi’s current CEO and a venture partner at Launchit Ventures.
“As a healthtech founder, I saw firsthand the challenges of creating and growing a new business in the healthcare space,” said Harsevoort, Launchit Ventures’ CEO. Harsevoort also currently serves as founder and CEO of Hamilton-based software development firm Webility Solutions, which helps businesses scale with IoT, web and mobile solutions.
“You can’t build these companies alone,” said Harsevoort, who added that Launchit Ventures aims to save entrepreneurs “years of execution challenges by helping them navigate through critical technical, regulatory, legal, procurement, and funding issues.”
Although they also provide funding, venture studios are more hands-on than most venture capital firms. For Launchit Ventures, this means building “the right team for each venture,” working with their board of advisors “to develop and nurture new ideas.” By taking this approach, they aim to offer a “more predictable path to success.”
Harsevoort said current travel restrictions, which have made it difficult to network, have increased the value of having access to critical partners and experts.
“Current startup communities are not attracting the teams best suited to solve healthcare’s biggest challenges,” wrote the venture studio in a blog post announcing its search. “It takes seasoned entrepreneurs to successfully launch these novel ventures.”
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