Los Angeles, California – LABioHub, the Los Angeles-based consortium dedicated to aiding the growth of biomedical enterprises in the region, announced this morning their working partnership with RedSky, the for-profit subsidiary of the Medical Center of the Americas Foundation, based in El Paso, Texas where they engage area researchers and companies in the incubation, acceleration, and commercialization of revolutionary medical devices and medicines.
RedSky is bringing new energy to the biomedical research startup world, with its launch of a Seed Accelerator program that provides up to $200,000 per year in seed capital for six to 10 teams or startups over a three-month period to develop novel technologies that will drive medical progress and economic growth. As participants in the RedSky Seed Accelerator, each team will receive up to $20,000 for early development costs in exchange for up to 7 percent equity in the company or company to be formed. Additional perks to RedSky’s Seed Accelerator program include legal and accounting services, office space, a robust entrepreneurship curriculum, business advisory services and executive coaching from the Redsky team, and dedicated mentors, culminating in a Demo Day.
LABioHub has lined up over 100 mentors and scientific advisory board members comprised of world leaders in the life sciences and industry, and has developed bridges of relations to bioscience startup development resources in the region – a base that LABioHub builds on every day. RedSky is doing the same, not only in the Paso del Norte region (West Texas, Southern New Mexico, and Northern State of Chihuahua in Mexico), but also nationally and internationally. Both organizations realize that game-changing innovation is best attained through collaboration.
This collaboration partnership provides both companies with the opportunity to establish a hub in the highly fragmented biomedical innovations market by leaning on each other’s strengths to become stronger together. Some examples include:
LABioHub will help RedSky startups to:
• Develop high-emotional impact videos that help tell their story. Los Angeles is a leader in crafted well told on video.
• Develop successful crowdfunding campaigns.
• Provide introductions to researchers and clinical investigators at UCLA, USC, Cal-Tech, Cedars Sinai, Huntington and other leading Los Angeles area centers.
• Coordinate introductions, when appropriate, to the industry leaders in the Los Angeles area such as Amgen, Alfred Mann and Nantworks.
RedSky will help LABioHub startups to:
• Conduct market analysis and develop marketing plans backed with solid supporting data.
• Facilitate introductions to a network of clinical investigators and research collaborators for trials including Mexico.
• Arrange introductions to the resources of the Paso del Norte region, and Texas-based industry leaders.
As part of the collaborative agreement, each entity will agree to host visitor members at their respective sites that are on missions to find collaborative researchers or capital, and to help arrange Demo Days in their respective states, attracting investors. Useful seminars held at either location will be live-streamed or video-recorded for viewing at the other respective site.
“In the modern noisy marketplace, it is hard to be heard above the crowd especially for a startup. You may have a great product or service but if no one knows about it, you are not going to go far. In today’s world, all companies are media companies whether they like it or not. A company IS its network. With this alliance we hope to grow our ability to help bioscience startups with introductions, network building and media outreach which is essential for success,” comments Howard J. Leonhardt of Leonhardt Ventures and Co-Founder of LABioHub.
Richard Koffler, CEO of the medtech device incubator Greenwings Biomedical and co-founder of LA BioHub remarks, “The partnership with RedSky is perfectly aligned with LA BioHub’s mission of providing LA’s life-science startups with the tools, knowledge and inspiration they need to make rapid progress. RedSky brings a portfolio of very valuable professional services and connections, and we give them direct access to one of the world’s fastest growing regions in life-science innovation.”
“This networking collaboration is a clear case of one plus one is three instead of two. By leveraging each other strengths and network of potential introductions, we both become better equipped to help our startups thrive, which is what our charter goal is as an organization,” states Albert Di Rienzo, President at RedSky.
The life sciences industry creates some of the best-paying jobs in the country; however, developing a high-powered, fairly accessible, collaborative platform for launching biotechnology companies is a challenge for this industry, especially in the early-stages of a startup. RedSky has a running start, looking to bridge this siloed space beginning with the Los Angeles bioscience community via LABioHub at ROC Santa Monica. “Building an innovation ecosystem that creates a steady stream of thriving successful enterprises is much more than just putting some clean air hoods in a building. We at RedSky believe the value we bring to our startups has much to do with the valuable introductions we can provide for them. Valuable introductions are a byproduct of the merging of two strong collaborative networks,” points out Neyha Sehgal, Director of Business Development and Market Analysis at RedSky.
About RedSky
RedSky is a healthcare innovation incubator and accelerator, created to drive economic growth in the Paso del Norte region and beyond. Established in 2013, RedSky is a touch point for inventors, startups, and academics who have a creative spirit and passion for improving human health. RedSky provides comprehensive funding; scientific, technology, and management expertise; state-of-the-art, purpose-built biomedical labs and office space for startups and on-going concerns; and access to a large network of successful innovators, business leaders, academics, funders, and collaborators. RedSky explores new frontiers in healthcare excellence, ensuring radical new levels of patient care and clinical outcomes are realized for everyone, everywhere. For more information on RedSky, please visit www.RedSkyTX.com.
About LABioHub
LABioHub is a cooperative effort among private industry biotech and biomed veteran entrepreneurs, scientists, co-working spaces, accelerators, local life science venture funds, grant writers, patent counsel, legal guidance, financial forecasting tools, social media outlets and capital raising assistance providers. The mission is to grow the life science industry in Los Angeles stimulating growth of the economy and employment including attracting to and retaining within capital and talent in the region. Fundamental to the latter two missions are LABioHubs efforts to commercialize Los Angeles area developed science, including university and hospital sparked inventions, by creating mutually beneficial partnerships with local industry and supporting innovative entrepreneurs. LABioHub at this time operates as a subsidiary of Leonhardt Vineyards LLC DBA Leonhardt Ventures and is 45.5 percent owned by Leonhardt Ventures (www.leonhardtventures.com), 45.5 percent by Greenwings Biomedical (www.greenwingsbiomedical.com) and 9 percent by Cal-X Stars Business Accelerator, Inc. (www.calxstars.com). LABioHub recently licensed ROC Santa Monica the rights to open a starter small incubator space at their Santa Monica location which includes LABioHub mentoring and hub support for all firms entering the facility. This Santa Monica facility has begun accepting applications for startup lab space and mentoring assistance within the 44,000 sq. foot location at 6th and Arizona in Santa Monica (the former Google campus). LABioHub is supported by the 70+ person business mentoring team of Leonhardt Ventures’ Cal-X Stars Business Accelerator (http://calxstars.com/team-cal-x/) and its 35+ person Scientific Advisory Board comprised of world opinion leaders (http://calxstars.com/scientific-advisory-board/).
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