Ataia Medical, a cohort of startup accelerator program Health Wildcatters’ fifth class, recently announced a $300,000 seed funding round led by Dallas-based early-stage venture capital firm Green Park & Golf Ventures and its principals, Clay Heighten and Carl Soderstrom.

The capital will help Ataia launch its flagship product — a medical communications device — as well as bring on Amy Foertsch, co-founder and chief operating officer, as a full-time employee.

“In Ataia’s case, closing this round means they can finish the design process and secure FDA clearance.”
Hubert Zajicek

“As an accelerator, it is our goal for our startup companies to obtain all resources necessary to execute on their respective mission. Startup capital is usually an essential component of the journey to success. In Ataia’s case, closing this round means they can finish the design process and secure FDA clearance,” Health Wildcatters CEO Hubert Zajicek told Dallas Innovates.

TOP ATAIA EXECS WORK IN DALLAS

Tyler Register

The company was founded in Atlanta in 2017. It’s still headquartered in the Georgia city, but after its participation in the Health Wildcatters program Ataia Medical established a base of operations in North Texas with Foertsch and CEO and co-founder Tyler Register working out of the Dallas office. The Dallas outpost is aided through help from Tricera Labs, a new incubator founded by Chris Hanson.

Ataia Medical’s product is a device it describes as a “universal, retrofittable communication aid for patients undergoing non-invasive ventilation therapy in a critical, point-of-care setting.”

The company will begin a clinical environment validation study on the device in Atlanta’s hospital system in the third quarter of this year.

Amy Foertsch

Participating in Health Wildcatters gave the young team of engineers coming out of Georgia Tech the support and guidance to direct their passion and transform the business plan for Ataia into what Foertsch and Register described as a “purposeful, viable company.”

“Health Wildcatters showed us what a top-tier accelerator can really do for a company,” Foertsch and Register jointly told Dallas Innovates. “They focus on startups in the medical and health industry, which made for a perfect match between us. The program taught us how to overcome the hurdles specific to bringing a product to market in the medical space, and how to raise money successfully. We would not be where we are without the continued support from the Health Wildcatters team and network.”

ATAIA AIMS TO BE DISRUPTIVE FIGURE IN NON-INVASIVE VENTILATION

Foertsch and Register said founding Ataia has been “an incredible learning experience” and the team expects the company to be a disruptive figure in the non-invasive ventilation market noting there is room for innovation in that medical device space and Ataia intends to be at the forefront.

Ataia’s co-founders advise entrepreneurs to lead with confidence, but also be aware of what they don’t know.

“Much of our success has come from a willingness to learn from everyone around us.”

Amy Foertsch and Tyler Register

“Much of our success has come from a willingness to learn from everyone around us. We take nearly every meeting that is offered to us, and we do our best to ask as many questions as we can. Operating in this way instills the confidence to make bold decisions later, because we can rest on the knowledge that we have solicited a wide variety of perspectives to inform our choice,” they said.

Along with the news about Ataia Medical’s seed round, Zajicek said another Health Wildcatters graduate from last year — Gregor Diagnostics — recently secured a $900,000 funding round. He said Health Wildcatter startups have raised more than $50 million in the last five years.