CLEVELAND– MedTech Innovator, the world’s largest accelerator of medical technology companies, yesterday named Lazurite as one of the MedTech industry’s hottest 50 companies by selecting it to participate in Medtech Innovator’s flagship four-month Accelerator program featuring medical device, diagnostic, and digital health technologies from around the globe. As a 2022 Cohort member, Lazurite will get unparalleled visibility and access to leading medtech manufacturers, providers, investors, and other industry stakeholders. At the conclusion of the program, MedTech Innovator will award $500,000 in cash and in-kind prizes in the final competition held at The MedTech Conference, powered by AdvaMed, in Boston this fall.
The tenth annual program launches June 15-16 at the invitation-only MedTech Innovator Summit in Mountain View, California. Lazurite CEO Eugene Malinskiy and President Leah Brownlee will join leadership teams from each of the other cohort companies to attend networking events and workshops with MedTech Innovator Partners and other industry leaders. The 2022 Cohort will also be featured June 17 at the Wilson Sonsini Medical Device Conference in San Francisco.
Lazurite’s new ArthroFree™ Wireless Surgical Camera System recently became the first such system to receive 510(k) market clearance from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for arthroscopy and general endoscopy. Surgeons using the ArthroFree System will be able to visualize the surgical field during minimally invasive surgery without the cumbersome and inefficient camera and light wires that all legacy systems continue to require. This new platform is designed to deliver improved operating room productivity, patient safety, and economic value through cost savings, energy efficiency, and reduced setup/breakdown times. The modular system also is designed to be drop-in compatible with patient data consoles, surgical displays and endoscopes found in minimally invasive operating rooms.
“Over the past nine years, MedTech Innovator has established a unique track record of identifying and supporting leading startups, with 95% of our graduates either still in business or having been acquired,” said Paul Grand, CEO of MedTech Innovator. “The 2022 MedTech Innovator Cohort represents a diverse and focused group of innovators, and we are excited to work with them alongside our corporate partners and industry advisors to ensure their success in addressing important unmet needs and improving patient care.”
As in previous years, the selection process for the 2022 Accelerator program was extremely competitive, with a 5% acceptance rate, according to Grand. The top 50 were selected from a record pool of more than 1,000 applications representing 49 countries and 43 U.S. States. From that group, MedTech Innovator with its corporate partners and over 400 industry judges, evaluated pitches from 170 candidates to select this year’s cohort of 50 startups representing 10 U.S. states as well as Canada, France, Germany, Israel, Ireland, Luxembourg, Singapore, and the UK.
MedTech Innovator is the industry’s leading nonprofit global competition and accelerator for medical device, digital health and diagnostic companies. MedTech Innovator’s mission is to improve the lives of patients by accelerating the growth of companies like Lazurite that are transforming the healthcare system.
Lazurite (formerly Indago) is a pre-revenue medical device startup company backed by private capital. The company has raised more than $25 million to date from institutional investors, family offices, and more than 70 physician champions. The Cleveland-based company (est. 2015) designs devices to set new operating-room standards for efficiency and patient safety. Lazurite’s ArthroFree™ System is the first wireless surgical camera system to receive FDA market clearance for arthroscopy and general endoscopy. The ArthroFree System ushers in a new era of wireless surgical visualization in minimally invasive surgery. It is designed to meet the needs of surgeons seeking more-nimble, cutting-edge surgical tools. Lazurite’s current product pipeline includes devices that incorporate their patented camera technology and laser light technology. Lazurite’s technologies are protected by a comprehensive intellectual property portfolio encompassing the ArthroFree wireless surgical camera system and the novel Meridiem™ light source as well as other products currently in development.
