A growing Dallas biotech hub backed by philanthropist and investor Lyda Hill has attracted an early-stage accelerator program that has helped startups globally reel in investments totaling $8.6 billion.
MassChallenge will establish a footprint at Pegasus Park with an initial early-stage group made up largely of biotech and life sciences startups. It said it plans to work over the next three to five years to grow the region’s ecosystem for innovation.
“Finding bold, long-term solutions from the science innovators that MassChallenge will attract and support in North Texas is more critical than ever,” said Lyda Hill, entrepreneur and founder of Lyda Hill Philanthropies. “[Its] presence is a signal of our region’s rich history of supporting entrepreneurs and will augment North Texas’ reputation for scientific and medical innovation.”
Dallas-Fort Worth’s leading health care accelerator, Health Wildcatters, recently joined UT Southwestern Medical Center, Massachusetts-based BioLabs and Taysha Gene Therapies as tenants at Pegasus Park. The 23-acre business complex that formerly housed operations of Mobil Oil Corp. is being redeveloped by Hill and J. Small Investments into a mixed-use office campus for biotech firms and nonprofit organizations.
MassChallenge launched in 2009 in Boston as a nonprofit that took no equity in the startups accepted into its accelerator program. It has since worked with more than 2,900 startups on three continents that have gone on to generate $3.6 billion in revenue.
It already had offices in Austin and Houston. Biotech leaders across the state have been touting the combined Dallas, Houston and Austin medical and technology markets as the “Texas Triangle” of innovation — a play on the more established Research Triangle in North Carolina.
“This expansion, for us, realizes our vision of connecting the Texas Triangle and opening doors for startups from around the world who are focused on driving solutions,” said a statement from Jon Nordby, MassChallenge’s head of community and ecosystem. “The North Texas ecosystem is at a unique moment in time to capitalize on an incredible opportunity that’s been building for the past few years.”
To get started, MassChallenge hosted a pitch competition in Dallas Thursday for startups working on biotechnology, wearables, patented therapies for infants and health-focused sports drinks. The competition offered a $10,000 grand prize and spots in MassChallenge’s early-stage program.
Avsana Labs took home the grand prize. The biotechnology startup, formed in September, is a spinout from the University of Texas at Dallas that’s developing technologies to detect and monitor pathogens and protein biomarkers.
