Health Wildcatters Wins Stage One of the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 2024 Growth Accelerator Fund Competition
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Media Contact: Jovelyn Castellanos
jovelyn@healthwildcatters.com
Health Wildcatters Wins Stage One of the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 2024 Growth Accelerator Fund Competition
Health Wildcatters “Women in Science and Healthcare” Initiative was awarded $50,000 in prize money for equitable access to entrepreneurship
DALLAS, APRIL 24– Today, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) announced Health Wildcatters as a Stage One winner for the 2024 Growth Accelerator Fund Competition (GAFC). Health Wildcatters “Women in Science and Healthcare” initiative will receive a $50,000 cash prize for its impactful and inclusive approach to nurturing a collaborative national innovation ecosystem to advance small business research and development (R&D) from ideas to the market.
By fostering connections between entrepreneurs, mentors, partners, philanthropies, corporations, investors, and other shared resources, GAFC 2024 catalyzes strategic ecosystem partnerships to build community and organizational capacity for the successful launch, growth, and scale of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)-based entrepreneurs.
"With the transformative SBA GAFC award, we launch a mission to catalyze innovation in healthcare and science, empowering female entrepreneurs by expanding the WISH network regionally, engaging partners, and providing local universities and students access to the expanding WISH network and resources powered by Health Wildcatters" said Hubert Zajicek, MD, MBA, CEO, Partner, and Co-Founder of Health Wildcatters.
The Women in Science and Healthcare award-winning model will assist in launching the pilot WISH program to expand access to the innovation economy through the WISH Network in Healthcare Entrepreneurship focusing on women entrepreneurs by expanding programming to university partners in North Texas.
Launched in August 2022, the WISH Network has over 250 participants engaged regularly. “We hope to continue to expand to universities in cultivating an ecosystem of mentorship, inspiration, and resources for female entrepreneurs regionally and help foster the future of Healthcare and Science.” said Jovelyn Castellanos, MHA, Director of Women in Science and Healthcare.
Two Stages
SBA welcomed Stage One submissions from a broad range of organizations with a collaborative vision to nurture a national ecosystem for equitable access to entrepreneurship. Winners of Stage One were selected through a multi-tier review panel process with experts in entrepreneurship, business, innovation, and strategic planning both inside and out of the federal government.
Stage Two offers an additional $50,000 to $150,000 in cash prizes for Growth Accelerator Partnerships. To learn more about Stage Two opportunities and to access the Growth Accelerator Fund Competition Guidelines, please visit https://www.americasseedfund.us/accelerators
From inequity and climate change, to supporting national defense and community-driven economic prosperity, the real opportunity is now to build up innovation ecosystems and Health Wildcatters is eager to deepen its collaborative impact in Sustainability and Biotechnology.
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About Health Wildcatters:
Health Wildcatters is a top-ranked seed accelerator based in Dallas, TX. Exclusively focused on
healthcare, Health Wildcatters has 109 portfolio companies that have raised collectively over $250 million across the last eleven years. To learn more about Health Wildcatters visit: www.healthwildcatters.com