LaPlace Interventional

7 startups grabbing the medtech spotlight in Minnesota

Minnesota has long been one of the nation’s top three medtech hubs and a good place for startups to get their footing.

For 17 years, the MN Cup contest has offered cash prizes and the opportunity for medtech (and other) startups to tap into expert help to accelerate their businesses. MN Cup is a community-led, public-private partnership that brings together corporations, venture capital firms, foundations, government and volunteers. This year’s crop of medtech semifinalists includes some names that may be familiar to readers of Medical Design & Outsourcing.

Get the full story on our sister site, Medical Design & Outsourcing.

10 Minnesota medtech startups you need to know

(Image courtesy of Pixabay)

Medical device startups can use all the help they can get, including from government-sponsored investment funds.

In Minnesota, one of the nation’s top three medtech hubs, the state Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) has been distributing $1.6 million per year since 2019 in innovation grants to tech startups — many of them in the medical device space.

“We also have $450,000 each year to provide that support to our startup community through education, helping those startups and entrepreneur innovators learn the know-how to start to scale their business,” said Neela Mollegard, director of the Launch MN entrepreneurship program at DEED, in an interview with Medical Design & Outsourcing. “We have connected Minnesota corner to corner, a hub-and-spoke model, representing higher ed to the private sector to government to entrepreneur support — incubators, accelerators — all working together to help these innovators s…