MindUP

MindUP is a digital health incubator in Haifa born from a partnership of Medtronic, IBM, Rambam Hospital, and Pitango Venture Capital, with a focus on predictive analytics, personalized medicine, and clinical software. The corporate-and-clinical partnership structure is the differentiator: portfolio companies get hands-on access to a major medical-device company, a major technology company, a major Israeli hospital, and a major venture firm in a single relationship. For physician founders early in their startup journey, that integrated platform compresses years of business-development work.

The thesis concentrates on predictive analytics applied to clinical decisions, personalized-medicine software, and AI-driven medical devices. MindUP runs an incubator program that pairs founders with the partner network’s clinical, technical, and commercial resources, and the program is structured around getting companies to a credible Series A position. The portfolio is not deeply public, but the operating model is built around the partner-network advantages.

Check sizes sit in the 250 thousand to 1 million dollar range, consistent with an incubator and pre-seed positioning. Stage focus is firmly at the start: pre-seed and seed, with the expectation that follow-on capital will come from a mix of Israeli seed funds, the broader Pitango platform, and corporate strategic investors as the companies mature. Geography is Israel-anchored, with the partner network providing United States and global commercial pathways.

The team is small and operates close to Rambam Hospital’s clinical departments, IBM’s research function, and Medtronic’s product organization, which is the structural advantage. Diligence is built around the partner-network value proposition as much as the standard venture process.

Approach MindUP when you are an Israeli physician or technical founder with a digital health idea that would genuinely benefit from clinical, technical, and commercial-partnership support. Pure software founders without a clinical angle will be a worse fit, as will hardware-only medical-device companies that do not need data and analytics. The most direct path in is through Rambam Hospital connections, the Pitango network, or the IBM and Medtronic Israeli organizations. Time the conversation when you have a research insight or an early product idea, a co-founder, and the willingness to engage with a structured incubator program. Pre-Series A founders are the right fit; later-stage companies will find a better home elsewhere.