PROTO Accelerator Explores Trending Entrepreneurial Industries
As it’s program grows, PROTO hopes to gain participation from a diverse collection of industry players.
PROTO Accelerator’s newly expanded Corporate Innovation Platform instills a culture of innovation within corporations across Michigan in multiple industry segments. PROTO Accelerator will focus on a variety of tech industries including MedTech, AgTech and InsurTech, assisting corporate partners in finding and defining where innovation opportunities exist.
You may not be familiar with the different tech industries PROTO Accelerator works with, despite each being a vital part of our everyday lives. Read on to learn about MedTech, AgTech and InsurTech, and how PROTO Accelerator can work with startups to increase innovation in each industry.
MedTech
MedTech encompasses products, services or solutions that use medical technology to improve people’s health by preventing, diagnosing, monitoring and treating disease. Examples of MedTech include medical devices (syringes, wheelchairs, cardiac pacemakers, medical imaging technologies), in vitro diagnostic devices (blood tests, tissues tests) and digital health devices (tools and services that use information and technologies to improve prevention diagnosis and treatment). Today, MedTech is so common and integrated into everyday life that it is difficult to imagine living without this technology.
“There’s such a vast array of ways MedTech innovation takes shape, everything from being more efficient in hospital-level treatments to products and services being offered,” said Tony Willis, president of PROTO Accelerator.
AgTech
AgTech is the use of technology in agriculture, horticulture and aquaculture with the aim of improving yield, efficiency and profitability. Agricultural technology can be products, services or applications derived from agriculture that improve input and output processes. The industry encompasses diverse solutions to almost every step in the food production process. Today’s agriculture uses sophisticated technologies such as robots, temperature and moisture sensors, aerial images and GPS technology. Some of the benefits of AgTech include higher crop productivity; decreased use of water, fertilizer and pesticides; reduced impact on natural ecosystems; and increased worker safety.
InsurTech
Since 2019, PROTO Accelerator has been an established presence in the InsurTech industry when the former PROTO InsurTech program welcomed its first cohort of international high-tech insurance startups to Lansing. InsurTech is the use of technology designed to enhance the operations of insurance firms and the insurance industry as a whole. Insurance companies are leveraging technologies such as big data, artificial intelligence, consumer wearables and smartphone apps to transform the way they do business. InsurTech allows individuals and businesses to access insurance options quickly and can tailor insurance coverage to meet their unique needs.
“The trend in the insurance industry to develop disruptive technology is intensifying. We are committed to continually innovating and investing in local companies that seek to innovate with us,” said Goran Jurkovic, President and CEO of Delta Dental, PROTO Accelerator partner.
Some visible examples of InsurTech include monitoring devices in cars, wearable activity trackers, customer-facing applications and SaaS platforms that manage insurance and payment coverage. In small business insurance, InsurTech works behind the scenes to increase the options business owners have, keep costs down and increase delivery speed of insurance coverage.
To learn more about PROTO Accelerator, visit http://www.protoaccelerator.com/ or email tony@purelansing.com.
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