Applications closed September 29, 2026.
Finalists deliver a five minute pitch followed by five minutes of Q&A from a panel of investor and operator judges: live, on stage, in front of 300+ founders, clinicians, and investors at Northeastern's Roux Institute in Portland.
Applications for the 2026 Pitch Competition closed on September 29. Finalists are notified this fall.
NNEMTC is the flagship gathering for Northern New England's medical device, biotech, and digital health ecosystem.
Pitch to a panel of investor, operator judges, and conference attendees.
Past competitors have walked away with new investor introductions, partnership conversations, and clinical pilots.
Every application is reviewed and scored by our judging panel. Whether or not you're selected as a finalist, your application puts you on the radar of the region's medtech community.
The winner of the 2026 Northern New England MedTech Conference Pitch Competition receives a combined $40,000 prize package: $10,000 in non-dilutive cash from the Maine Life Sciences Center, plus in-kind services from The Roux Institute, Simbex, and Cicada.
The winning company receives a $10,000 non-dilutive cash prize funded by the Maine Life Sciences Center, a statewide initiative housed within the Maine Technology Institute working to grow Maine's life sciences sector. The award is direct financial support to help advance the company's next stage of growth and development, with no equity taken.
A complimentary one-year membership to the Roux Incubator, which can be accessed in person or virtually. Membership includes access to 350+ mentors through the Roux Mentor Network, curated investor introductions, warm intros to potential customers and partners via Roux's industry network, research collaboration opportunities with Northeastern faculty, researchers, and students, and access to invite-only community events. The Roux Incubator has worked with over 160 companies, and members have collectively raised $350M+ in capital.
Simbex is a product development and innovation partner with deep expertise in medical devices, digital health, wearable technologies, and consumer health products. Their multidisciplinary team supports companies from early concept through commercialization, with capabilities spanning:
The winner receives complimentary advisory consulting from Simbex, applied to any combination of those services: refining a product concept, evaluating technical feasibility, building a regulatory or commercialization strategy, preparing for the next development milestone, or tackling another critical product challenge.
Designed to help an early-stage healthcare company sharpen its story and put the foundational tools in place for reaching first customers and stakeholders. Includes:
More details, additional prize benefits to follow!
All early-stage medical device, biotech, diagnostic, and digital health companies are encouraged to apply. Preferably, applicants have a prototype and some proof of concept evidence.
Business concept through early revenue. Being based in Northern New England (VT, NH, ME) is not a requirement — your application should speak to why this conference makes sense for you.
Companies selected as finalists must commit a founder, CEO, or senior member of the leadership team to pitch in person at NNEMTC 2026, November 12 & 13, 2026, at the Roux Institute in Portland, ME.
The application asks about your unmet need, solution, market, competition, go-to-market, and funding to date, plus a pitch deck upload. Plan on about 30 minutes.
Tell us what you're building and why it wins. A draft pitch deck is fine; it's used for application review only, not the live event.
Our panel of investor and operator judges scores every application on value to patients, technical feasibility, team, business model, and fundability.
The highest scoring companies are invited to pitch live at NNEMTC 2026: five minutes on stage, five minutes of judge Q&A, winner announced at the conference.