The Rady School of Management at UC San Diego is known for its heavy focus on entrepreneurship. Not only does the Rady MBA program offer various electives—as well as a Lab to Market capstone course focused on developing the next great entrepreneurs—but the school is also home to two accelerator programs including the StartR Accelerator. And for StartR, 2016 was an exciting year in entrepreneurship.
StartR is a non-profit accelerator program designed for Rady students and alumni. Its goal is to provide entrepreneurs with the tools and skills they need to start and grow their business. In 2016, StartR was responsible for launching ten new business ventures. But that’s not all; participants in the program also took home multiple prestigious awards throughout the year.
Below is a detailed look at some of the top achievements for StartR in 2016.
Key StartR Achievements 2016
- Braykion, a healthcare system designed to rid the health care environment of preventable infections, became the seventh StartR team to be accepted into EvoNexus.
- StartR teams took home multiple local awards including the Social Innovation Challenge; the Entrepreneur Challenge, EvoNexus Demo Day, CONNECT’s Most Innovative New Product Awards and more.
- TEDxSanDiego’s Innovation Alley featured two StartR teams (Aira and Braykion).
- The 2017 cohort welcomed ten new teams in November 2016, and it’s the most gender diverse group to date.
- StartR teams raised more than $7 million in funding, bringing the total funding since 2013 to over $23 million.
- Clarify Medical and Grolltex were named to Xconomy’s 12 San Diego Tech Startups to Watch.
- The Wall Street Journal’s Startup Showcase included Aira, a tech service for the visually impaired, as a finalist.
To learn more about all of Rady’s achievements with StartR Accelerator in 2016, visit the school website and check out the news article. And to find out more about StartR, the free six-month long acceleration program located on the Rady School campus, head on over to the StartR website.