leAD Lake Nona Sports & Health Tech Accelerator Announces First Cohort

The top 1.36% of applicants were selected for leAD’s first U.S. program

Virtual phase in progress followed by an on-site phase in Orlando’s Lake Nona community

The leAD Lake Nona Sports & Health Tech Accelerator has selected six promising sports and health tech startups for its 2020/2021 cohort. The leAD Lake Nona Sports & Health Tech Accelerator program is a joint venture between leAD Sports & Health Tech Partners, the leading sports and health tech investment platform inspired by sports industry legend Adi Dassler, and Lake Nona, an innovative living lab community in Orlando, Florida. The Lake Nona program is the first leAD accelerator program in the U.S.

“We are very proud to announce our selected startups and start working side-by-side with great founders, first virtually then in-person,” said Christoph Sonnen, Co-Founder & CEO at leAD. “For this cohort, we sourced the absolute best in this industry – world-class, hungry entrepreneurs with solutions that are truly cutting edge. It is a great mix of sports tech as well as health and well-being– two areas that gained significant importance in light of the pandemic and have been incorporated in our company’s DNA even prior to that.As we begin our journey in Lake Nona together with the support of our partners, we expect to see these founders aim high and grow at a very accelerated pace.”

While the virtual phase of the program kicked off in early October 2020, selected startups are expected to be on-site in Lake Nona in early 2021 for a six-month program where they can take full advantage of the community’s booming innovation ecosystem, proximity to world-class medical and sports facilities, and exclusive Verizon 5G broadband capacity.

“The startups in our first cohort are incredibly impressive,” said Juan Santos, Senior Vice President of Innovation at Tavistock, the Lake Nona developer. “There are so many technology, health, and well-being opportunities that are native to Lake Nona’s living lab environment where these talented entrepreneurs can test their solutions in the real world. We can’t wait to welcome them on-site into Lake Nona’s collaborative ecosystem early next year.”

The program received 442 applications from 44 countries. After a rigorous selection process, six startups were selected to participate in the acceleration process.

Selected Startups

From intelligent virtual physical therapy to a solution that understands how fast you are aging, here’s more information on the 2020/2021 cohort:

TERSA, from Los Angeles, California, is the world’s most intelligent virtual physical therapy and training platform that has a built-in camera and movement assessment software to diagnose alignment from the comfort of your own home.

KinoTek, based in Portland, Maine, is a digital health platform that improves the evaluation process for clinicians who specialize in movement assessment. They have developed a movement technology that is quantitative, objective, and accessible to the patient and clinician and improves the quality of care.

Nestre, based in Lake Nona, is a neuro strength platform that provides cognitive assessments and training to users. They can assess, monitor, and improve performance in the areas of cognitive health, mental well-being, and human performance.

Phlex, from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, offers performance insights into the world of swimming. Their first product, Phlex EDGE captures granular data such as speed-based and metabolic metrics like heart rate, detect swimming technique, and provide feedback on this to improve swimming performance.

AgeRate, from Toronto, Canada, is developing an epigenetic test to track and optimize healthy aging. Their proprietary test can accurately reveal an individual’s biological age and recommend different lifestyle interventions to help slow down their aging.

Break the Love, from New York City, is building a vertical social network that digitizes all the services associated with tennis for clubs and players. From first-timers to seasoned pros, tennis players will have access to a community of other like-minded players, courts, competitions, and premium coaches as they unlock their full potential in the sport.

Each program participant received a $75,000 pre-seed investment with 8% equity backed by the unique combination of leAD’s vast experience in seed investing and startup programs, Tavistock’s investment legacy, and Lake Nona’s smart city landscape.

The leAD Lake Nona space

Beginning in early 2021, the on-site leAD Lake Nona program will be located within the new 16,000-square-foot Pixon MS2 innovation space in the heart of Lake Nona Town Center – the community’s open-air regional entertainment district. Wired with gigabit infrastructure and access to a high-speed 5G network, the Pixon MS2 space provides a vibrant environment lined with art and complete with co-working spaces, conference rooms, and common areas to allow participants to conceive, test, and implement their ideas.

For more information about the program, visit www.leadsports.com/academy/lake-nona.

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