3 RAMP alumni each received $100,000 in Governor Northam’s inaugural round of Commonwealth Commercialization Fund awards!
Please join us in congratulating BEAM Diagnostics Inc CEO Sarah Snider; Itus Digital CEO Joe Nichols; and Jeeva Informatics Solutions Inc. (JEEVA) CEO Harsha K Rajasimha.
They were among just 34 small technology-focused businesses in Virginia to receive grants in today’s announcement.
RAMP is pleased to announce that applications are now open for our fall cohort to begin in September 2021. We are looking for technology startups with scalability, and coachable entrepreneurs who have a desire to do the work.
RAMP will select up to five companies for the 12-week cohort that provides:
• Expert 1:1 mentoring with the region’s top entrepreneurs and executives
• Free office space with high-speed internet in downtown Roanoke in Virginia’s Blue Ridge
• Access to venture capital
• $20,000 in equity-free funding
Application Close Date: August 15
Cohort Start Date: September 13
DEMO DAY (tentative): December 9
One of the biggest challenges in bringing a new drug to market is recruiting and retaining patients to participate in the FDA-required clinical trials.
Most trials require patients to travel to a brick-and-mortar site, which can be a burden. On top of that, 30% of patients are likely to drop out before the trial is over.
Jeeva Informatics — a RAMP startup participating in our Spring 2021 Health & Life Sciences Cohort — seeks to solve this with a technology that helps pharmaceutical companies navigate these challenges.
Led by founder and CEO Harsha Rajasimha and director of business development Sharlene Brown, Jeeva’s cloud-based software reduces patient recruitment time and drop-out rates, and by facilitating trials at a patient’s home, increases compliance by reducing the traditional travel burden.
More at https://jeevatrials.com.
Like cascading dominoes, Robert’s life was falling apart.
His diabetes was out of control, resulting in episodic shocks that cost him his driver’s license. No longer able to get out and about, he became a shut-in, which led to a severe depression.
Thankfully there was Kinergy Care, a healthcare coaching and coordination service founded by Gail Embt and led by Arthur Spivy that is one of RAMP’s four startups in our 2021 Spring Health & Life Science Cohort.
Currently based in McLean with plans to move to Roanoke, Kinergy Care has designed a platform to better track and manage patients across acute, ambulatory and home care settings, expertly guiding a non-clinical community health worker at every step in delivering care coaching and coordination, enabling a cost effective and scalable solution.
For Robert, Kinergy Care’s community health workers and care navigators engaged him in getting his diabetes under control and his license reinstated, which lifted his depression.
More at http://kinergycare.com.
Got milk? RAMP startup Tiny Cargo puts a whole new spin on that.
Working at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute in Roanoke, Tiny Cargo is using milk acquired from Homestead Creamery to create a transformative drug delivery technology for an entirely new class of drugs that could help victims of heart attack and other disease.
Tiny Cargo is a spinoff from Virginia Tech professor Rob Gourdie’s lab and is led by Spencer Marsh. It is one of four startups in RAMP’s 2021 Health and Life Sciences Cohort.