News from Westchester’s Entrepreneurial Ecosystem

Featuring news, entrepreneur profiles, and mentorship and growth opportunities

Westchester County Office of Economic Development Hosts New York City Life Sciences & Economic Development Executives for Exclusive Tour of Center of Industry Excellence

The Westchester County Office of Economic Development (OED) hosted an exclusive tour of the County’s dynamic life sciences cluster for members of New York City’s economic development and life sciences community. The tour, which featured speakers from BioInc@NYMC, Burke Neurological Institute, Clarapath, Leviant, New York Medical College, Regeneron, Retia Medical, Sapience Therapeutics, Westchester County Biosciences Accelerator and Westchester Medical Center, provided guests an opportunity to meet the groundbreakers and innovators who are driving Westchester’s life sciences sector forward.

Home to 200+ ventures and 20% of New York State’s private life sciences employment, Westchester County is where life sciences works.

Additional Event Photos & Video Highlights Available Here.

Element 46 Alum Open Market Now Shoppable Online

Open Market is your new socially responsible marketplace, redistributing capital and customers to BIPIC (Black Indigenous People of Color) and POC (People of Color) businesses. Open Market is responsive to new types of demand in conscious retail.

Founded by Imani Schectman, a graduate of the most recent Element 46 Tech Accelerator Powered by Cela cohort, Open Market makes it easy for consumers to locate and patronize BIPOC brands that align with the initiatives they care about -- social justice, equity, sustainability, and livable wages. Open Market allows BIPOC-owned businesses to go beyond their geographic limitations while gaining access to resources, capital, and an engaged audience.

Westchester County Biosciences Accelerator

Pitch Day 2023: May 11

Get your tickets today!

The Westchester County Biosciences Accelerator Pitch Day 2023 returns in-person to the Florence Gould Theater in New York City on May 11. This annual event features pitches and presentations from 23 ventures from both the WCBA and the ABCT life sciences accelerator programs. This year's event will also feature a panel of distinguished alums who will share their work changing care within biosciences.

Click below to register!

Chiefy Raises $4.2 Million in Seed Funding

Chiefy, the pioneering cloud platform that helps surgical teams seamlessly embed quality and communication best practices and alum of the Westchester County Biosciences Accelerator, announced this week that it has raised $4.2 million in seed funding to accelerate and expand product development and customer acquisition. The new investment was led by LionBird, with participation from Nina Capital and Emerge Ventures.

OI! Launching Next Program in June 2023

For people who wish to take control of their lives and start their first business, but they need an idea first: The newest OI! Program teaches participants to become skilled in an approach to find opportunities, generate ideas, and evaluate them! Participants will graduate this 3-week program with dozens of new business ideas, prioritized and possibly an idea they want to pursue further. The rest is up to them! Classes take place Wednesdays via Zoom 6 PM - 9 PM on June 7, 14, and 21.

Visit https://ossininginnovates.com/idea-bootcamp to learn more and apply.

Sapience Therapeutics Awarded $2 Million SBIR Grant

Sapience Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of peptide therapeutics to address oncogenic and immune dysregulation that drive cancer, announced that it was awarded a $2 million, two-year Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The proposed non-clinical studies will investigate pharmacodynamic biomarkers for ST316, a first-in-class β-catenin antagonist, and evaluate the impact of ST316 on the tumor microenvironment (TME) in patient-derived cancer models.

WCBA Cohort Member Launches Boutique Fertility Consultancy

Justine Witzke, PhD, MPH, a member of the Westchester County Biosciences Accelerator's 2023 cohort, has launched Aligneage Fertility, a boutique, human-centered sperm bank and fertility consultancy. The mission of Aligneage Fertility is to provide high-quality, equitably accessible, compassionate, personalized, and evidence-based andrology services, sperm donor screening procedures, fertility guidance, and industry-specific consulting.

Patient consultations and educational seminars as well as staff training and business-to-business consulting are available now, and laboratory and clinical services are expected to be available Summer 2023.

Learn more and stay up to date by visiting their website and following them on Instagram @aligneagefertility.

WCBA Cohort Member Wins Third Place in

Millard Chan Technology Challenge

Neetika Ashwani, MPH, a member of the Westchester County Biosciences Accelerator's 2023 cohort, recently won third place at the Columbia Venture Competition's Millard Chan Technology Challenge. Her venture, KRIASH, is a wearable device that keeps track of vitals (heart rate, respiratory rate, saturation, temperature) and contact duration in newborns to reduce neonatal morbidity and mortality.

Financial Wellness for Small Business

10 Week Program

SBDC Entrepreneurship Webinars

Interested in the Life Sciences Sector? Sign Up for Our Newsletter Today!

Are you an entrepreneur in the life science space? Sign-up to receive our weekly newsletter, which features news, events and industry trends. Click here to register and to see an archive of past newsletters.