TMC, Baird Capital partnership boosts local startup access to funding
As leaders from 23 medical device companies anxiously waited to take the stage to present their products at the TMC Expert Forum, Texas Medical Center President and CEO William McKeon and Michael Liang, Ph.D., partner with Baird Capital, announced a new partnership that would help eager startups like those in the wings have more access to venture capital funding.
The partnership, announced Thursday, marries the Texas Medical Center’s entrepreneurial ecosystem with Baird Capital’s financing expertise in health care and technology.
In addition, Baird Capital will establish its Houston office in the Texas Medical Center, providing a front door in the world’s largest medical city for commercialization and investment resources. Together, the two entities will explore and foster investment opportunities and link directly to Baird Capital’s global platform with the ability to tap into capital and expert advisors.
“Texas Medical Center is excited to welcome Baird as a key component to our growing and unprecedented life science hub,” McKeon said. “This is yet another major milestone for establishing the Texas Medical Center as the Third Coast of life sciences.”
Twenty-three logos hang in the TMC Innovation Institute to show off the companies that are part of the current accelerator class
The announcement came as the TMC Innovation Institute marked the final week of its TMCx medical device accelerator bootcamp with the Expert Forum, where startups pitch their cutting-edge innovations to an audience of potential advisors, mentors and key opinion leaders.
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TMCx provides startup companies with shared workspace, a curriculum tailored to the needs of health care entrepreneurs and the guidance of more than 200 advisors from the front lines of the industry. Companies have access to the world’s largest medical center without membership fees or equity sharing.
Audience members at the Expert Forum filled out “match cards” to select the startups they were interested in working with over the next three months and to help them navigate the Texas Medical Center’s 61 member institutions.
