Recognizing the need for transformative solutions in an evolving healthcare landscape, Velocity is building a globally competitive platform for startups to commercialize health technology. The expansion provides world-class support to even more health startups in Canada and will be led by Science alumnus Moazam Khan.
With deep roots in innovation ecosystems across the globe, Moazam Khan (BSc. ‘16, MBET ‘17) joined Velocity staff as business adviser to Velocity’s portfolio of health tech startups prior to filling the Director of Velocity Health role.
He is a graduate from the Faculty of Science (Honours Science with an entrepreneurship minor) and holds a Master in Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology from the University of Waterloo. He is a big supporter for solutions that tackle big and pressing problems within our healthcare system.
Khan said health tech startups are confronted with obstacles different from their counterparts in other fields of research and development, creating a huge gap between innovation and commercialization.
“This is a big problem in Canada,” Khan said. “Health tech startup validation comes from clinical trials and pilots which is a big challenge because early-stage founders don’t have the necessary funding to conduct trials but if they don’t have the validation, they can’t raise venture capital funding.”
Khan’s vision is to break through this catch-22 by developing a platform for clinical trial support and key technical and funding advisers, including hospitals, entrepreneurial physicians, Velocity alumni and investors.
“We are setting our eyes on the global stage to foster one of the world’s largest health tech commercialization platforms,” Khan said. “I returned to Velocity to help scale and grow the next generation of health tech. This region is special with its abundance of health innovation and through this network, health tech startups can work on the next big idea and scale.”
On March 2, join Khan for the launch of Velocity Health. Khan will share the exciting work that is underway to create a global network of health innovators. Discover how companies receive early-stage validation and a range of support and resources throughout their lifecycle, from ideation to clinical trials, market validation and adoption. Find out about exciting new Pan-Canadian partnerships that will unleash a wave of support toward health technology commercialization and hear from key people in the Velocity Health partner network, including representatives from the health technology ecosystem across Canada.
Since launching in 2008, Velocity companies have raised over $4.3B USD in venture capital and have a collective enterprise value of over $26B USD. The list of full-time Velocity companies will soar from 70 to over 100 when Velocity operations move to the Innovation Arena facility in late 2023.