NEW YORK, July 1, 2023 — Firefly Innovations, the premiere entrepreneurship platform of the City University of New York Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy (“CUNY SPH”), recently announced the eight public health ventures selected to participate in the 2023 cohort of the annual CUNY Public Health Innovation Accelerator (the “Accelerator”).
Firefly Innovations also announced that KPMG is serving as a sponsor of the 2023 Accelerator and the Accelerator Showcase, which is scheduled for July 20 from 12 PM - 2 PM ET and is open to the public.
“We’re honored to be building a long-term partnership with our brilliant colleagues at KPMG in order to further accelerate the growth and impact of our programming and the public health ventures we’re supporting throughout the world,” said W. Michael Short, Managing Director of Firefly Innovations and Senior Director at the Center for Systems and Community Design at CUNY SPH.
Founded in 2020 by Dr. Terry Huang, Chair of the Heath Policy and Management Department at CUNY SPH, the Accelerator is a program of Firefly Innovations designed to help entrepreneurs harness the tools and resources necessary to create and implement robust, scalable, and equitable public health solutions.
Ventures are immersed in a unique global community of peers, mentors and industry experts through weekly workshops, presentations, consultations, one-on-one support, and a signature showcase event. Firefly Innovations contracted with an independent organization, coLab, to help implement the 2023 Accelerator.
The eight ventures participating in the 2023 Accelerator cohort were selected from the largest and most competitive pool of applicants in the program’s four year history — 173 individual accelerator applicants from 24 countries.
“This is a record-setting year for our CUNY Public Health Innovation Accelerator,” said Mr. Short. “Applicants to our 2023 accelerator are among the most promising and inspiring public health entrepreneurs and ventures in the world we’re working hard to significantly expand our programming in order to support more ventures. Planning is currently underway with partners to make our program the largest and most comprehensive public health venture accelerator of its kind in the world.”
Click here to learn more about the 2023 CUNY Public Health Innovation Accelerator.
Most Competitive Applicant Pool in Accelerator History
Record number of applicaNTS
+128% venture applicants (114)**
+127% individual applicants (173)**
Most geographically diverse applicantS in program history
+167% applicant countries (24)**
+92% applicant states (25)**
+108% applicant cities (100)**
applicants Have raised the most capital in program history
Raised $1 million on average
+233% average funds raised**
applicants have the highest valuations in program history
Average valuation is over $8 million
+10% venture valuations**
applicants raising The Most capital in program history
Raising $1.2 million on average
172% increase in size of capital raise**
**2023 Applicants vs. 2022 Applicants
Introducing the 2023 CUNY Public Health Innovation Accelerator Cohort
Ventures participating in the Accelerator are building tech-enabled solutions to advance equity across many areas of healthcare.
Participating ventures are addressing varying issues from health literacy to oncology and mental health. Service areas covered include telehealth, patient care coordination, health worker career development, and health education.
Each startup has demonstrated significant traction with their solution and the communities they serve.
Oatmeal Health is an AI-enabled, Cancer Screening as a Service for under-represented patients of FQHCs and Health Plans.
Speetar Health is a telehealth platform that provides accessible, affordable quality healthcare in adverse conditions and creates centralized health data to protect increasingly mobile populations.
Sanarai is an online platform that connects the Latinx community to mental health professionals in Latin America to provide culturally sensitive, Spanish-language emotional support at accessible prices.
RE-Assist is a digital platform that empowers more efficient transfer of care admission.
Sanitas Health is a psychology-based language analysis platform for understanding human emotions, personalities, motivations, and psychology from everyday language.
Tiny Docs supports healthcare partners to improve kids’ health outcomes and save providers time through its educational and entertaining animated content.
Medsembly is an employee engagement, learning, and wellness tool that helps healthcare companies stay connected to their team, improve company culture, and work performance, while offering career support and guidance to current and future healthcare workers.
Human Edge is an enterprise tech company focusing on optimizing the health and wellbeing of the global workforce to help them achieve peak performance.
Meet the 2023 Firefly Changemakers
2023 Accelerator Participants
