Tampa General Hospital is creating a venture capital fund focused on innovation, improving efficiency within the hospital and investing in health care companies.
The new program, InnoVentures, will launch in 2021, according to a news release. It will create three new programs within the hospital. The Tampa General Hospital Innovation Lab aims to help physicians improve efficiency. The Tampa General Hospital Accelerator program will help healthcare startup companies as they prepare to go to market, and the Tampa General Hospital InnoVentures program will invest money directly with health companies.
“TGH InnoVentures is a critical ingredient in our strategic vision to become the safest and most innovative academic health system in America,” said Tampa General Hospital President and CEO John Couris in a statement. “It has the potential to be a game changer for both the organization and the health care industry.”
The hospital will partner with Embarc Collective, a nonprofit innovation hub, and work out of their facility in downtown Tampa.
Lakshmi Shenoy, the CEO of Embarc Collective, said the partnership would mean Tampa General can work with more than 50 early-stage startups and help draw new companies to the area.
“As we work to grow Tampa Bay’s innovation ecosystem, the field of health care will be a key driver, and TGH InnoVentures will be leading the charge,” Shenoy said in a statement.
Rachel Feinman, a Tampa native, was hired to help lead the program. She’ll join the hospital as the vice president for innovation in January. She was previously executive director of the Florida-Israel Business Accelerator.
