Through funding from the Humana Foundation, PowerUp will spend the next five months sourcing 10 digital health concepts from faculty and graduate students at North Carolina HBCUs, beginning with North Carolina A&T, nonprofits as well as Community Health Centers that address nutrition and health disparities impacting the Black community. Over a period of two months, PowerUp will select two concepts best positioned to become venture-backable businesses.
“We’re committed to expanding the scope of healthy resources for underserved populations while eliminating the barriers that keep them from reaching their full health potential,” said Tiffany Benjamin, CEO, Humana Foundation. “The Foundation’s support of the PowerUp program is our inaugural Health Equity Innovation Fund investment and will advance innovative solutions through entrepreneurs who are vested in the communities they strive to uplift.”
“The most impactful innovation is driven by entrepreneurs with a firsthand understanding of the problem they are trying to solve,” said Dieterle. “PowerUp aims to catalyze social and economic impact by investing in innovators who are focused on improving health outcomes for their own communities. This program will be an economic driver for the state and beyond.”
Within three years, PowerUp plans to deliver at least six validated venture concepts from diverse communities, at least six diverse founders to lead and three venture-based startups. These startups will be eligible to receive funding from the HBCU Founders Fund, a $40 million accelerator fund and venture studio investing in the most promising startups where at least one of the founders is a HBCU student, alumni or faculty member.
“We are excited to create a pathway that helps ensure that solutions to the most vexing problems facing society do not die on the vine due to a lack of technical and financial support,” said Marlon Evans, president of the HBCU Founders Initiative and partner at the HBCU Founders Fund.
