2021 has been a momentous year for medical innovators.
Fueled by the accelerated adoption of new healthcare delivery models through the pandemic, 2021 has been a landmark year for medical innovation. While we haven't quite left COVID-19 behind us, we have seen more and more students, clinicians, and scientists take the leap into entrepreneurship to bring their innovations to life. The market has responded to this frenzy of activity with a record level of investment dollars being poured into healthcare startups. Our hope at Enventure is that all of this activity will translate into better outcomes for patients and the continued growth of our Texas innovation ecosystem.
For Enventure this year has meant continued growth and community.
2021 was also a landmark year for Enventure. We saw our Bioventures alumni company, Clip Health (formerly Luminostics), pivot their at-home testing technology to serve the urgent need for rapid testing during the pandemic. We saw our client company, Volumetric, get rewarded for their expeditious technical progress in bioprinting through an early and significant exit to 3D Systems. And finally, we saw many of our student and trainee members get incredible positions across academia, industry, consulting, and venture capital - continuing to spread our alumni network's reach farther and wider.
This year marked another major milestone for us: we hired our first full-time Executive Director, Jeanne Manalo, Ph.D. Jeanne is a fellow immigrant entrepreneur and Houstonian transplant, and I am very excited to see Enventure grow under her leadership.
I would be remiss not to mention a significant loss to our community this year in the passing of the Chairman of our Board, David Schubert. David was a force of nature in our community and a fierce advocate for Enventure. He loved innovation and innovators with a passion and was always hustling to put Houston on the map. He wrote Enventure one of our very first checks and served on our board for the last decade. Enventure would not exist today had it not been for David. We will miss our dear friend.
Enventure turns 10 next year.
When my co-founders and I started Enventure in 2012, we had no idea it would grow into what it is today. We simply believed in the power of bringing innovators together and providing them with whatever they needed to move forward. This simple principle continues to guide Enventure's activities today, although we have grown well beyond our initial happy hour events. Today, we serve ecosystem companies with consulting services that provide the research and talent they need to propel themselves forward. We provide experiential learning opportunities to those students and trainees looking to build a particular skill set for the world beyond academia. And finally, we support underrepresented founders through Catalyze, our Diversity Equity Inclusion initiative to try to create a more equitable environment in the early life science startup ecosystem.
For all of Enventure's progress, we have you to thank. The students, trainees, clinicians, entrepreneurs, and alumni, that make the Enventure community the force it is today. As you prepare for an effective 2022, consider donating to Enventure to help us thrive for another 10 years.
Sincerely,
Joanna Nathan