First StarTUp Accelerator venture acquired

Health care tech company StoCastic acquired by California-based Beckman Coulter Diagnostics

By Rebecca Kirkman on October 14, 2022

Man stands in front of Armory building
Eric Hamrock, co-founder of StoCastic and 2020 StarTUp Accelerator fellow at the StarTUp at the Armory. (Lauren Castellana / Towson University).

StoCastic, a member of the 2020 StarTUp Accelerator cohort with headquarters in the StarTUp at the Armory in downtown Towson, has been acquired by California-based Beckman Coulter Diagnostics. It is the first venture from the StarTUp Accelerator cohorts to be acquired.

StoCastic uses artificial intelligence to support hospital emergency department decision-making with TriageGo, a tool that integrates electronic health records and emergency department workflows. The tool is used in the emergency departments at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center and Howard County General Hospital, which see a combined 200,000 patients annually.

StoCastic, which has received National Science Foundation funding through the Small Business Innovation Research program and is a member of the Baltimore Development Corporation’s Emerging Technology Centers, found a home in the StarTUp Accelerator’s inaugural cohort led by Executive Director of Entrepreneurship Patrick McQuown.

Founded in 2017 by Eric Hamrock, a former analytics manager at Howard County General Hospital and Dr. Scott Levin, an associate professor of emergency medicine at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, StoCastic joined the StarTUp Accelerator in search of resources like mentorship, networking and physical office space for its growing team.

That experience laid the groundwork for its acquisition two years later.

“The accelerator helped us be confident in strategically growing our presence in one place—the emergency department—which led to our acquisition,” Hamrock says.

“We are in between a health care company and a tech company, so it was great to have someone like Patrick—who had started multiple tech companies—available to offer advice,” he says. “Being a CEO, you don’t have a lot of people to talk to or always know who to trust, so it’s nice to have someone who doesn’t have an agenda other than giving you a place to succeed.”

The company’s entire 11-person team is now employed by Beckman Coulter, Hamrock says, and they plan to continue working out of the StarTUp at the Armory for the foreseeable future.

One of TU’s signature entrepreneurship programs, the StarTUp Accelerator is a fellowship providing mentorship, founder-centric programming, a $10,000 equity-free stipend and exposure to successful program alumni ventures.

It is part of the university’s commitment to serve as a community leader and partner by extending the talents of students, faculty and staff beyond campus boundaries to create opportunities for leadership, entrepreneurship, civic engagement and experiential learning.

Earlier this week the University Economic Development Association named the StarTUp the engaged university winner in its 2022 Awards of Excellence. The award recognizes the StarTUp as the top university economic development initiative in North America.

The StarTUp at the Armory opened last fall in a state-of-the art, 26,000-square-foot space, including 6,000 square feet of free coworking space and meeting rooms where entrepreneurs and executives connect with each other and to TU’s programs and people.

Apply to the 2023 StarTUp Accelerator cohort by Oct. 28.

Learn More