MedTech Innovator Announces 2024 Grand Prize, Execution Award, and Best Video Winners at The MedTech Conference Powered by AdvaMed

Samay wins $350,000 Grand Prize to advance breakthrough COPD acoustic resonance patch

SanaHeal named Execution Award Winner by MTI and AdvaMed Accel

Ozlo wins Best Video Award

MedTech Innovator (MTI), the world’s largest accelerator of medical technology companies, today announced that Samay is this year’s Grand Prize Winner, taking home $350,000 in non-dilutive funding. Samay, of Mountain View, Calif, and Medellín, Colombia, is the first Latin American company accepted to MedTech Innovator in its 12-year history. Samay is developing a novel acoustic resonance patch for COPD diagnosis, management, and intervention.

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Maria Artunduaga, CEO and founder of Samay, accepts the 2024 MedTech Innovator Grand Prize Award and check for $350,000 in non-dilutive funding. (Photo: Business Wire)

This is the tenth year that the culmination of the MTI Accelerator program was hosted at The MedTech Conference, the largest gathering of industry leaders in North America. With a five percent acceptance rate, this year’s MTI Accelerator included 65 companies, selected by a process involving hundreds of industry experts from among 1,300 applicants, training and graduating a cohort of global best-in-class startups with the highest potential for success and impact on patient outcomes.

The Grand Prize Competition took place in Toronto on October 16, on the main Keynote Stage at The MedTech Conference, which had a record-breaking attendance of 4,350 attendees. The live conference audience of industry leaders voted in real-time to select Samay as the winner, following presentations by them and the other four finalists: BrainSpace (Seattle), Flow Medical (Chicago), Juniper Biomedical (Worcester, Mass.), and NeuroBionics (Cambridge, Mass.), who each received $25,000 finalist prizes.

At the Grand Prize competition finals, each finalist pitched their value proposition and answered questions from a panel of industry experts, including:

• Mirren R. Mandalia, Senior Director, Global Business Development, Johnson & Johnson Medtech
• Sonal Patel, Vice President, Business Development Strategy/M&A Integration/Venture, Zimmer Biomet, Inc.
• Townsend Goddard, Senior Vice President, Global Head of Business Development, Olympus Corporation
• Joseph Smith, Chief Scientific Officer, BD

“We are honored to make history as the first Latin American startup to not only be accepted but win the MedTech Innovator competition in its twelve years of existence,” said Maria Artunduaga, CEO and founder of Samay. “During the program, we had access to a top-notch group of sponsor companies and dedicated individual mentors who engaged with us regularly on ideas and concepts from regulatory to technology, distribution, finance, business and beyond. The Grand Prize recognition is not only for Samay but for all the advisors, mentors, minority programs, physicians, engineers and talent in North and South America that believed in us and our vision for a better future for COPD patients everywhere.”

“Congratulations to the entire team at Samay on their well-deserved win of the coveted MedTech Innovator annual Grand Prize, as determined by the real-time vote of hundreds of leaders in the medtech industry. Samay’s truly game-changing technology platform addresses a critical unmet need for accurate remote monitoring of respiratory symptoms to improve the care of nearly one billion people affected globally by COPD, a severely underdiagnosed and deadly disease with a cost burden in the trillions,” said Paul Grand, founder and chief executive officer of MedTech Innovator. “Samay’s win is even more significant when you look at the incredibly high caliber of all five of this year’s best-in-class finalists. We look forward to seeing these finalists and all of the 2024 MedTech Innovator cohort companies continue to advance their technologies in the pursuit of improving care and outcomes for millions of people around the world.”

SanaHeal Wins Execution Award

SanaHeal (Cambridge, Mass.) won the MedTech Innovator Execution Award & Virginia Rybski Memorial Award, presented jointly by MedTech Innovator and AdvaMed Accel. The Execution Award recognizes strong leadership teams with value-adding innovations and a demonstrated track record of successfully executing their plan to improve patient care. The Execution Award winner was selected by the audience at The MedTech Conference and received $25,000. The other finalists were AccurKardia (New York), Akeyna (Boston), iCE Neurosystems (Washington), and Vonova (San Diego).

“I am grateful to have had the opportunity to participate in the MedTech Innovator Accelerator program, which provided us incredible opportunities to interact with like minded entrepreneurs and to receive valuable counsel from industry mentors. I am super excited to have won the execution award. The prize money will help support our ongoing research and development activities,” said Hyunwoo Yuk, Founder and CTO of SanaHeal.

Ozlo Wins Best Video Award

Ozlo (Boston) won the Best Video Award and $10,000, competing against fellow best video finalists Samay, PLEXaa (London) and Salvia BioElectrics (Eindhoven, The Netherlands) as determined by a live vote of the audience at The MedTech Conference. All 65 MTI cohort companies were eligible for this award.

This year, MTI tapped over five hundred subject matter experts to evaluate thousands of applicants and mentor the best-in-class 65 companies participating in MTI’s flagship four-month U.S. market-focused accelerator program. Featuring 45 early-stage and 20 mid-stage medical device, diagnostic, and digital health companies from around the globe, the 2024 cohort company leadership teams received unparalleled mentoring, networking, and access to the resources that only MTI’s world-leading ecosystem of strategic manufacturers, investors, healthcare providers, payers, patients, and other industry stakeholders can offer. All 65 companies were showcased at The MedTech Conference in Toronto, and four mid-stage companies will soon compete in the exciting Mid-stage Finals competition during the MedTech Strategist Innovation Summit on November 19-21 in San Diego.

About MedTech Innovator

MedTech Innovator (MTI) is the world’s largest accelerator of medical technology companies. Its mission is to improve human health by accelerating the growth of companies transforming patient care. MTI has been a catalyst for groundbreaking healthcare solutions, reviewing nearly 12,000 applicants and fostering the growth of 717 companies that have collectively raised over $8.7 billion in follow-on funding after graduating from MTI and introducing 350+ products to the market, transforming the lives of millions.

For more information about MedTech Innovator, its annual programs, portfolio of industry-leading startups, and insights on trends, visit MTI’s website, follow them on LinkedIn, and subscribe to its monthly newsletter.

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