Portland’s KinoTek becomes first New England startup accepted into international accelerator

KinoTek, a Portland-based software startup in the digital health space, has been accepted into a new startup accelerator for companies leveraging technology in the areas of sports and health.

The accelerator, leAD Lake Nona Sports & Health Tech Accelerator, selected six companies, including KinoTek, for its 2020/2021 cohort. The program received applications from 442 companies from 44 countries, which equates to a 1.36% acceptance rate, according to a news release from the accelerator.

KinoTek, along with the other startups in the accelerator, will receive a $75,000 pre-seed investment with 8% equity, according to the accelerator’s release.

The leAD Lake Nona Sports & Health Tech Accelerator is a joint venture between leAD Sports & Health Tech Partners, a Berlin-based sports and health tech investment fund, and Tavistock Development Co., the developer of Lake Nona, a 17-square-mile, master-planned community in Orlando, Fla.

LeAD organized its first accelerator in Europe in 2017; the Lake Nona program is its first accelerator program in the United States. KinoTek is the first New England company ever selected to participate in a leAD accelerator.

“We are really impressed by KinoTek,” Christoph Sonnen, leAD’s CEO and co-founder, said in a statement. “We believe their team—a great group of bright former collegiate athletes who have experienced the pain points they are trying to solve—has what it takes to bring their vision to life and become leaders in the health and human movement market. We are very excited to have them on board!”

KinoTek’s pivot

Justin Hafner and David Holomakoff founded KinoTek in 2018. The company spun out of Hafner’s research in kinesiology while a student at the University of Maine, where Holomakoff was a research scientist. Hafner now serves as CEO and Holomakoff, who has joined the company full-time, is chief product officer.

KinoTek is developing software that uses computer vision technology to gather motion capture data that it can then uses to create full-body computer visualizations of the human body, including measurements of things like joint range of motion and asymmetry. Hafner and Holomakoff originally were targeting professional athletes and sports teams with its software, but it pivoted earlier this year after the pandemic put a damper on any professional sports activity.

The company is now targeting the digital health space, specifically physical therapists, chiropractors, occupational therapists, athletic trainers, and any other licensed professional who uses movement as a way to assess, treat, or prescribe rehabilitation—a customer segment Hafner calls “movement clinicians.”

In the first two weeks of the pivot, KinoTek filled an initial beta program with 25 clinics from around the United States, according to Hafner. It began testing the software at these beta sites in September, and has since added 40 clinics to a waitlist to join the beta.

“Since our founding in 2018, we have put in a lot of work, sleepless nights, and too many cups of coffee to get to this point. The response from our new customers was remarkable and reaffirming how big of an impact we can make in a fragmented market,” Hafner told Maine Startups Insider.

This quick show of traction is part of the reason the company was accepted into the Lake Nona accelerator, according to Hafner.

Hafner said KinoTek’s acceptance into the program is “an incredible honor.”

“As the first New England company ever selected, we hope to open the door for future promising local startups and demonstrate how Maine is a force to be reckoned with in the global startup ecosystem,” Hafner said.

lake nona

Tavistock Development Co. has built Lake Nona from scratch and designed it as a “living lab” focused on the areas of health and sports. It is already home to Johnson & Johnson’s new Human Performance Institute and the U.S. Tennis Association’s new National Campus. Verizon has also deployed 5G technology throughout the community.

The community and, specifically the facility set aside for the accelerator, “creates a perfect ecosystem for the next great breakthrough that will transform how we live,” said Juan Santos, senior vice president of innovation at Tavistock.

While the virtual phase of the accelerator program kicked off in early October 2020, Hafner and the other startup founders 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 innovation ecosystem, proximity to world-class medical and sports facilities, and the exclusive Verizon 5G broadband capacity.

“Lake Nona is ground zero for the future of health technology,” Hafner said. “By partnering with leAD and Tavistock, KinoTek will have access to industry leaders whose guidance will catapult our company to the forefront of health tech innovation.”