Hartford Business Journal

12 Hartford Business Journal • November 16, 2020 • www.HartfordBusiness.com of Hartford, is currently working on a project with multinational financial services firm UBS, Poojary said. It will probably end 2020 with $400,000 in revenue, but it had been on track to earn $1 million before the COVID-19 pandemic put a few ongoing projects on ice. Hartford HealthCare (HHC) this year began partnering with med- tech startups on pilot programs. HHC Chief of Geriatric Medicine Dr. Sowmya Kurtakoti is overseeing an ongoing pilot using Texas-based startup BrainCheck's mobile app that tests users for cog- nitive decline. So far, Kurtakoti says BrainCheck appears to be producing more accurate results than traditional tests performed in-person. With the pilot, HHC is using a cutting-edge product it otherwise wouldn't have known about, Kurtakoti said. "I think it's a changing world, and we need to stay with the times," Kurtakoti said. "We need to make these innovations more available to our patients." Keeping them here While Hartford is putting more focus on recruit- ing startups, keeping them here remains a significant chal- lenge. And one key element where the region lags is access to ven- ture capital, Cote said. In 2019's first quarter, Califor- nia recorded the largest number of venture capital deals with 1,473. Second and third place went to New York and Massachusetts, which had 525 and 265, respectively, accord- ing to the National Venture Capital Association. Connecticut had 19, and even that number is a bit inflated, Cote said, because some were trans- actions by Connecticut VCs that only seed New York companies. "It's not something we needed in the past," Cote said, noting the burgeoning inno- vation economy didn't have much to offer venture capitalists until recently. However, Cote thinks an increasing num- ber of compa- nies succeeding in Hartford is likely to increase interest from investors. Meantime, Schlossberg and others say they are more keenly focused on recruiting more established companies that will be able to attract investor interest. Shah, of Aureus Analytics, said the key to boosting Hartford's startup scene is for more large companies to work with smaller firms, perhaps with the government providing incentives to do so. "If there's enough business and companies to work with locally, they'll come and stay," Shah said. Quality Construction + Butler Manufacturing = Repeat Customers www.borghesibuilding.com © 2011 BlueScope Buildings North America, Inc. All rights reserved. Butler Manufacturing™ is a division of BlueScope Buildings North America, Inc. 2155 East Main Street • Torrington, Connecticut 06790 The Belknap White Group, Hartford, CT | 2012 | 15,300 sq. ft. Northeast Beverage, Orange, CT | 2006 | 97,000 sq. ft. Contact us at 860-482-7613 or visit us on the web. Senior Data Engineer w/ Aetna in Hartford, CT *telework opportunity*. Develop systems that process, store and serve data for use by others. Rqmts: Master's in Comp Sci, Business Analytics or IT rel field. Min 2 yrs of IT analysis exp working w/: Unix, DB2, R/Python programming, Hadoop (HDFS, Hive, Spark,), Mainframe MQ; querying complex large relational databases using SQL; & conducting requirements gathering, design, implementation & testing phases in Software Development Life Cycle or in an Agile environment. Must also have exp publishing high level design documents. Telework opportunity. Apply online at www.aetna.com Req# 74553BR. >> Tech Push continued These startup founders, hailing from around the world, participated in the first Stanley+Techstars accelerator program in Hartford. PHOTO | HBJ FILE CT Venture Capital Activity Number Dollar of Deals amount 2016 48 $201 million 2017 62 $361 million 2018 54 $415 million 2019 58 $557 million 2020* 37 $420 million * The 2020 totals represent only the first three quarters of the year. Source: PwC MoneyTree report

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