News
Health Tech Among Winners of 2026 New York State Commercialization Competition
Overview
Empire State Development (ESD) gave $430,000 to four early-stage New York companies in the 10th annual New York State Commercialization Competition. FuzeHub hosted the competition at the New York State Innovation Summit. Nine entrepreneurs from across the state competed for the four awards. The money comes from ESD’s NYSTAR division and the FuzeHub Jeff Lawrence Innovation Fund. Extra state funding raised the award amounts this year. Winners must use the money to improve an existing prototype, so they can attract more investors and customers on the way to market.
In This Article
The two largest prizes went to health tech companies, which together received $260,000, or about 60% of the total.
CaroRhythm ($150K, NYC): Its product, CaroSense, is a wearable stroke-risk monitor for use at home. It tracks blood flow and alerts stroke survivors, their care partners and clinicians when a stroke may be starting. The award funds first-in-patient prototype validation, a key step on the path through clinical testing and approval.
Lucent EMS Solutions ($110K, Long Island): A hands-free device that records clinical data in real time during emergency calls. It drafts the patient care report for the crew to review, cutting paperwork to under 10 minutes per run. It aims to ease workload and burnout for EMS crews.
The Big Picture
Health innovation is leading the state’s pipeline. Medtech and digital health took the top two spots against competitors from food and clean tech. That shows how competitive New York’s health tech founders are at the prototype stage.
The state is putting more money in. Higher awards this year under Governor Hochul show continued state investment in early-stage commercialization, which fills a key funding gap. Prototype-stage money helps founders get past the stretch between a working concept and private investment. For life sciences founders, that gap often comes right before clinical validation.
Founders, students and early-stage teams should watch FuzeHub and NYSTAR programs, including the Jeff Lawrence Innovation Fund, as non-dilutive funding sources that don’t require giving up equity.
