‘Life with cancer’ app joins Microsoft accelerator

When individuals contract a serious illness like cancer, they enter a whole new world of pain – not just the pain associated with their condition or treatment, but the pain of trying to figure out how to continue living as normal a life as possible. Illness affects work, family life, finances, exercise, diet – all of the day to day things that comprise life. Now there’s an Israeli app for that, and it’s getting serious recognition.

For many people suffering from serious illnesses, the journey is too difficult to bear, and they descend into depression. That’s one of the worst obstacles to improving their health. To help them cope, there’s a new profession known as “patient navigation,” in which professionals help patients deal with the details of life that are affected by illness. To aid those professionals and family members, Israeli medical technology firm Medicope has developed an app – allowing patients and caregivers to assess their ability to cope with serious illness and suggesting ways to deal with those details.

That’s the kind of idea that Microsoft Ventures, the start-up accelerator arm of the international tech giant with a branch in Tel Aviv, appreciates – and as a result, MS Ventures enrolled Medicope in its newest accelerator program. Along with Medicope, 10 other start-ups were chosen to participate in MS Ventures Israel first-ever “thematic” accelerator program, in which companies in the cyber-security and health care industries will have an opportunity to take advantage of one of the start-up world’s most successful accelerator programs.

The 11 companies in the program – six in the cyber-security business and five in the health industry – were chosen from among the hundreds of firms that applied, including many from the Far East, Europe, the US, and Africa. Responding to the deluge of applicants from abroad, Microsoft accepted the applications of four non-Israeli start-ups, hailing from Slovenia, India, Japan and Spain, which are enrolled along with seven Israeli start-ups in the program.

As members of the MS Ventures Accelerator in Tel Aviv, the companies can expect a four-month program chock-full of help and mentoring from some of Israel’s top figures in business, finance, technology, and anything else a start-up needs to succeed. Microsoft does not provide money to companies accepted in the program, but neither does the company take a stake in a start-up, as many other accelerators do.

MS Ventures Accelerator worldwide — there are programs in six cities — are among the world’s most successful accelerators anywhere. To date, 78% of graduates from Microsoft’s global accelerator programs have raised an average of $1.5M follow-on funding. Fourteen companies, including two from Israel — Kitlocate (acquired by Yandex) and Appixia (acquired by Wix) have been bought out by large companies.

New partners have joined the cyber-security accelerator, including cloud services provider Akamai, which joins with original MS partner JVP venture capital fund, one of the most active investors in Israel in early stage cyber-security companies. The start-ups in the program will be given access to the wealth of cyber-security knowledge accumulated by Akamai and JVP, including mentoring and introduction to relevant clients and partners around the world. Akamai will offer an optional $25,000 investment in each start-up accepted into the program via the purchase of convertible bonds. In the framework of this cooperation, JVP will invest $1 million in one of the participating startups, who will also be invited to join JVP’s cyber-security incubator in Beersheba.

On the health care side, BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company), a leading global medical technologies company, and Healthbox, the American health care accelerator and investor, will be helping to fund companies, offering entrepreneurs an optional investment of $75,000 via convertible bonds and grants, along with mentoring from experienced managers who will assist each startup in understanding healthcare customers and systems’ needs, along with potential reimbursement, clinical and regulatory requirements.

The program began this week. It assists start-ups to develop products and services on a world-class level and to make a rapid jump to the global market. The program consists of mentoring and individualized guidance from over 100 mentors who are senior high-tech and business professionals, physical and technology infrastructure, and a range of joint ventures with global companies and organizations that offer consulting and follow-up programs.

“This batch of start-ups emphasizes Israel’s strength as an ecosystem of global importance,” said Hanan Lavy, director of the Microsoft Ventures Accelerator in Israel. “Some 30% of the participants are foreign startups. Furthermore, leading global companies such as BD and Akamai, as well as JVP and Healthbox will contribute their knowledge to the young companies. These partnerships create a set of global capabilities for startups in the program – and not by coincidence. The partnership will provide startups with unprecedented access to strategic markets and clients. And in addition to the mentorship start-ups will receive, our goal is to springboard the program participants to the front lines of the industry.”