Future of Healthcare Founder Residency Welcomes 10 Innovative Startups to Maine

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The Future of Healthcare Founder Residency, a program of Northeastern University’s Roux Institute, has announced its 2025 cohort of ten groundbreaking healthtech companies. More than 150 community members, partners, and healthcare leaders gathered to welcome the cohort members to Maine. This marks the beginning of a year-long program that aims to transform healthcare innovation accessibility in Maine and beyond.

The Residency, powered by Northeastern University’s Roux Institute in partnership with Northern Light Health, MaineHealth, and Maine Venture Fund, continues to establish Maine as an emerging hub for healthcare innovation. The program provides investment, mentorship, clinical integration opportunities, and a collaborative framework to accelerate business growth for promising healthtech ventures.

Hugh Jones, chief strategy officer of Northern Light Health, welcomed the third cohort with heartfelt gratitude. “Thank you for taking the risk,” Jones said to the entrepreneurs. “Thank you for taking the chance on your idea, for taking a chance—especially for those of you who are fundamentally technologists and decided ‘I’m going to pursue an idea in healthcare’—and for taking a chance on Maine.”

Meet the 2025 Cohort

The ten companies in this year’s cohort represent a diverse range of healthcare solutions:

1. Docs for Health: Closing the gap between healthcare and social needs through an easy-to-use software platform that works like TurboTax for social needs.
2. Hoopsy: Eliminating plastic from lateral flow tests, starting with a patent-pending sustainable pregnancy test design.
3. MedReddie: An AI-powered platform streamlining medical procurement to enhance efficiency, reduce costs, and improve health system outcomes.
4. Navimental: A digital platform supporting parents of children with mental and behavioral health challenges by connecting them with experienced navigators and providing intuitive tools.
5. Restoration Medicine: Offering precision diagnosis and team-based care for pelvic health conditions.
6. Secured Health: A technology-enabled marketplace connecting certified community health workers with contracted opportunities from payers, health systems, and value-based organizations.
7. SegMedix: AI-powered web platform that streamlines prostate MRI diagnosis for radiologists by automating segmentation, lesion detection, and radiology report generation.
8. SkinCheck: A digital dermatology platform making early skin cancer detection and dermatological care accessible to everyone, everywhere.
9. StenoHealth: AI-driven platform automating home health documentation, quality assurance, and coding to reduce clinicians’ administrative burden.
10. Theramotive: A care delivery model making physical therapy as accessible as an Uber ride—available on-demand through a platform combining mobile clinics, licensed clinicians, and billing in one seamless solution.

Building Maine’s Healthcare Innovation Ecosystem

Of the ten companies selected for this cohort, nine have relocated to Maine specifically to participate in the program. Two companies have joined to establish their U.S. operations in Maine. Notably, all ten companies feature at least one diverse co-founder, reinforcing the program’s commitment to building an inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystem.

“Our goal is to address the intricate challenges faced by patients and communities in Maine,” said Elena Brondolo, director of the Future of Healthcare Founder Residency. “We’re cultivating a vibrant health tech ecosystem that promotes the creation of new ventures, attracts investments, and generates job opportunities.”

Members of the cohort are already demonstrating early success, with Docs for Health set to close a seed funding round this week and MedReddie announcing a partnership with HealthPRO Canada, the country’s leading group contracting organization serving over 2,000 healthcare facilities nationwide.

Addressing Critical Healthcare Challenges

The solutions developed by these companies directly target pressing healthcare challenges faced in Maine and similar regions:

• Expanding access to rural healthcare delivery
• Optimizing workflows and streamlining processes
• Closing care gaps and increasing access

For the next three months, the companies will participate in the program’s “Intensive” phase—a three-pronged innovation approach that includes curriculum on clinical validation, sales and implementation, regulatory compliance, and healthcare integration; support from entrepreneurs in residence, mentors, and executive coaches; and practical application through clinical mentorship, collaboration, and potential joint research or pilots.

Convergence: Where Expertise Meets Opportunity

The April 10 kickoff event also highlighted how ventures from earlier cohorts have accelerated their prototype development, clinical and research validation, and business viability.

“It’s not a mystery to any of us the elements of the healthcare system that are broken in this country,” Jones noted, celebrating the entrepreneurs willing to tackle these challenges. “Healthcare is hard,” he acknowledged, expressing appreciation for “young, enthusiastic people who come in and say, ‘we want to be part of this hard challenge.'”

A panel moderated by Joe Powers, managing director of Maine Venture Fund, featured several collaborative success stories, including:

• Christine Lary, PhD, Research Associate Professor at the Roux Institute, discussed her collaboration with Apriqot, a Future of Healthcare Cohort 1 company, to enhance techniques for mapping Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias (ADRD) prevalence and risk by combining healthcare and public health data sources.
• MK Bryan, CEO & Founder of EmpoweRx, a Future of Healthcare Cohort 2 company, shared how relocating from Tennessee to Maine has embedded her in a welcoming community through partnerships with the Roux Institute’s researchers, customer discovery with the Northern Light Health’s HR team, and other local funding resources, such as Maine Technology Institute.
• Lizzy Mulcahy, Senior Director of Telehealth at MaineHealth, explained her role connecting companies to clinical champions and helping founders navigate the healthcare system. She specifically references how her collaborative work with Legacy, a Future of Healthcare Cohort 2 company, is aiming to improve healthcare outcomes and clinician engagement with AI-enabled advanced care planning applications.
• Isaac Owens, a Roux Institute Biotechnology student, described his co-op experience with Metis Health Technologies, a Future of Healthcare Cohort 2 company, where he has supported fundraising strategies, financial consulting, data room development, and budgeting.

“A cornerstone of the Future of Healthcare Founder Residency is its unique approach to growing companies using health partnership, research, clinical validation, and mentorship, all backed by a leading university,” said Brondolo. “Together, we’re finding opportunities to become collectively more competitive and deliver meaningful healthcare innovations to Maine communities and beyond.”

“Make sure you take advantage of everything that this program has to offer—the faculty, students, staff, the healthcare ecosystem, the beauty of the state, and maybe most importantly, each other,” said Jones. He emphasized the power of collaboration among the diverse group of founders, advising them to “be vulnerable as you interact with everyone because everyone’s here to help. It’s one of the nice things about Maine—people want to help you.”

Learn more about the Future of Healthcare Founder Residency and its participating companies. To get involved and mentor one of our newest companies, reach out to Allyson Goida, Sr. Program Manager.