Bethesda, Maryland Jan 22, 2024 (Issuewire.com) - The Center for Advancing Innovation (CAI) has announced its newest challenge to advance innovations for the future of health, the Global Health Innovation Challenge II (GHIC II). GHIC II is generously supported by CAI's three-year grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) Build to Scale (B2S) Program. From the first two years of U.S. EDA B2S funding, CAI named 32 winning startups, trained and mentored 105 semifinalists, held 45 webinars on the business of science for 1150+ participants representing 287+ startups and 770+ employers, and held fourteen virtual demo days with 2,200+ investors for 87 presenting companies, which raised >$30 million and directly created 275+ jobs since participating in CAI's challenge. Companies launched from the GHIC II will commercialize next-generation biotechnology, health security, and supply chain technologies around the world.

In addition to the U.S. EDA's support, CAI is grateful for the generous support of the Sobrato family, Walton Family Foundation, Dr. Richard Merkin's Heritage Provider Network, and other notable philanthropists throughout our history.

Aligned with the U.S. EDA's investment priority of advancing equity across America, the GHIC II seeks to sustain CAI's platform for creating knowledge-based jobs for all talent. As with prior CAI challenges, the GHIC II will form new, multidisciplinary startups around entrepreneurial-minded people who enroll in the challenge alone or with teammates. These GHIC II startups will advance vetted, commercially-viable inventions from CAI's consortium of 150+ leading research institutions. CAI also welcomes existing startups with global health-related innovations, including their own and/or others to which they have access, to compete and scale in the challenge.

Rosemarie Truman, Founder and CEO of CAI, said, "Winners of CAI's challenges raise more money than startups that go through any other biotech and deeptech accelerators. Winners and finalists of CAI's 11 completed challenges have cumulatively raised ~$1.5 billion and directly created over 1900 jobs. We expect GHIC II spin-outs to build on this legacy of success by leveraging the unrivaled resources available to them through CAI."

Rosemarie added, "From CAI's last five challenges, almost 80% of the winners and finalists are building their companies versus the norm of 90% failure within one year. One important factor is that we have been extremely inclusive with over 40% of CAI's startups co-founded by women and over 70% of CAI's startups co-founded by minorities, illustrating the value of improving equity and inclusion on many levels and not charging for pitches and accelerators. Our programs do not charge to gain access to education nor do we charge access to mentors and investors. CAI orchestrates our programs for free for hard-working participants; on average, challenge winners have raised about $7.5 million each."

Anyone with an entrepreneurial spirit and interest in the future of health is encouraged to learn more, and sign up for additional information at https://globalhealthic.org/.

To compete in the GHIC II, individuals or teams of at least two can begin enrolling in the challenge right away at https://form.jotform.com/CAIStartups/ghicii. Entry is rolling. CAI will announce the first group of challenge semifinalists in June 2024.

Global health experts interested in advising, mentoring, and/or evaluating entrepreneurial teams through the challenge can help create a difference in the world and volunteer at https://form.jotform.com/CAIStartups/ghiciiadvocate.

ABOUT CAI:

The Center for Advancing Innovation (CAI) is a global public-private partnership, non-profit focused on creating a virtuous circle of innovation and driving growth breakthroughs through novel, creative paradigms, and models. CAI's mission is to accelerate and increase the volume of technology commercialization to ignite entrepreneurship, bolster the global economy, and maximize the potential of promising inventions. CAI's award-winning challenge-based accelerator, rigorous evidence-based due diligence, and capital-efficient lean management models serve to hyper-accelerate "gazelle" high-performing startups for outsized investor returns. For additional information about CAI, please visit https://www.centerforadvancinginnovation.com/.