The Iron Yard’s Accelerator program will only appear in Spartanburg this year, according to Managing Director Marty Bauer.
Last year the company launched a digital health accelerator focused on launching early-stage tech companies in and around health and wellness applications. Bauer said the accelerator map will expand in 2015, which includes plans for a green tech accelerator in Asheville.
Bauer said the Iron Yard’s sponsors and partners are homing in on the emerging trends and interesting technologies that they want to see commercialized. The focus on health will also take advantage of new markets opened up by the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. The emphasis will continue to be on “capital efficient” companies developing software applications, many of which will be for improving various aspects of service delivery in hospital systems.
One of last year’s startups, ChartSpan, chose to remain in the Upstate and now operates out of the NEXT Innovation Center in Greenville. It secured just over $1 million in its first fundraising round. Another company, Prime Genomics, developed cancer-screening technology that is undergoing clinical trials at the Mayo Clinic.
Applications are being accepted for the session that will begin July 7. The group will again present at the Health 2.0 conference in Santa Clara, Calif., in September.
The Iron Yard is expanding all of its programs to other cities. Chief Strategy Officer Joe Saddington has said free computer coding education for children will be part of the program in any new location.
An intensive code school opened in Atlanta in March 2014. The Iron Yard also plans to offer co-working spaces in Asheville; and intensive code schools for front-end developers in Charleston; Tampa, Fla.; Austin, Texas; and Durham, N.C.
The fourth Greenville code school kicked off last month.
