Carolyn Yarina, who famously moved to Baltimore to build medical device maker Sisu Global Health, will serve as entrepreneur-in-residence of a startup accelerator program at Michigan’s MTEC SmartZone.
The three-month program is focused on attracting startups in advanced materials and manufacturing, with accepted companies receiving access to diverse business resources and coaching, as well as opportunities to pitch to potential investors. Startups won’t need to pay anything because the program is funded by a federal grant.
Focus on Materials, Manufacturing
The Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Program Accelerator will run from April 30 to Aug. 15 in Houghton. The deadline for applications is Friday.
“I’m looking forward to supporting your growth as entrepreneur-in-residence alongside the fabulous MTEC SmartZone, and talented co-directors of entrepreneurial programming, Katherine Kirsch, and Grace Hsia Haberl,” Yarina, an engineer from the University of Michigan, wrote in a LinkedIn post.
The accelerator is industry agnostic, but focused on design and development of new materials and advanced manufacturing, Yarina said, adding that it is “especially interested in supporting underrepresented entrepreneurs.”
Device Innovation
A year after receiving a degree in chemical engineering from the University of Michigan, Yarina joined with fellow U. of Michigan engineer Gillian Henker to start Sisu Global, which set out to build a safe, affordable autotransfusion device for developing countries. The inspiration came after Yarina watched a “soup ladle” being used for autotransfusion — transferring one’s own blood lost to internal injury — in Ghana.
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Sisu’s co-founders then moved to Baltimore, initially to be eligible for the DreamIt Health Baltimore accelerator, but stayed on after receiving a tremendous welcome from the startup community here. It won backing from AOL co-founder Steve Case, Camden Partners and Keiretsu Capital, among others, raising nearly $4 million. Sisu developed a safe device, called Hemafuse, that could be assembled in less than 5 minutes and requires no specific infrastructure.
“We’re proud to be a Baltimore company that exports globally, and that’s not going to change,” Yarina once told Technical.ly. Yarina and Henker went on to win several honors, among them the SXSW 2021 and the Thomson Reuters Foundation TrustLaw Impact Award in 2020. For her achievement, Yarina won a place in Forbes’ 30 under 30 in Healthcare in 2020. Henker continues to serve as Sisu Global’s CEO.
Currently, Yarina serves on two boards, and advises two early-stage venture capital funds, besides serving as mentor for several entrepreneurship programs. She is also the founder of CentriCycle, a healthcare program in India.
