Note: Allan Maurer, co-founder of WRAL TechWire (Local tech Wire as launched in 2002), is covering the big venture capital and startup events taking place in Charlotte this week. His exclusive first report focuses on Tuesday’s Charlotte Venture Challenge kickoff. Our Insiders can access this story – and more to come. (Read this morning’s first story online at WTW and a (second advancing the Charlotte events.)
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – You always see market trends at venture conferences, and the Charlotte Venture Challenge event ongoing this morning ahead of the full Southeast Venture Conference, is not different. The region’s strength in medical devices is evident, for instance with five of 30 presenting companies in the sector.
Did you know that studies show stethoscopes are as germy as hands and spread dangerous pathogens, yet 80 percent of healthcare providers do not systematically sterilize them?
Durham-based StethoBarrier hopes to change that with its disposable stethoscope. The company is seeking $450,000 to purchase inventory and begin marketing.
Other medical device startups presenting this morning included:
- Wilmington-based Surgium, which is developing a RoboMarker for more efficient pre-cataract surgery.
- Charlotte-based dReiniger provides a locker that uses multiple techniques to disinfect a lab coat in minutes. It’s intended to reduce the 1.7 million people who suffer from hospital-acquired infections annually.
- Advance, NC-based magnagrips produces a therapeutic glove with magnets in the fingertips and an opposite pole magnet in the thumb. It helps patients with the most common rehabilitative exercise for strength and dexterity of the hand, the “pincer grasp.”
- Mount Pleasant, SC-based Tarian Orthotics sells custom-moldable medical braces for treatment of athletic injuries. The braces incorporate clinically-based designs and advanced materials.
