Update on MATTER expansion plans

In mid-2018, we began working with the city of New York on an opportunity to develop a healthcare and life sciences innovation center in Manhattan. At that time, we were largely a Chicago incubator and saw a New York location as a strategic opportunity to be part of the large healthcare and life sciences community there. Today, we are a global incubator and innovation services provider with members and partners around the world. As a result, in the two-year period since we started working on this opportunity, having a physical presence in New York City has become less necessary to our expansion goals.

We will not be moving forward with the development of a physical location in New York City. We will, however, continue our virtual expansion in New York and around the world.

While we are disappointed that we won’t be opening a location in New York, we met a lot of terrific companies and people throughout this process and we will continue to expand our network there in the months ahead. More than one-third of our members today are not Chicago companies, and that is the fastest growing segment of our membership. In addition, many of our most active corporate partners are not Chicago-based, and we will continue to expand our network of health systems, payers and life sciences companies that we work with on the East Coast and around the world.

Closer to home, we see important new opportunities in the Chicago area, with renewed interest in supporting healthcare and life sciences innovation from the State of Illinois, City of Chicago, other civic institutions and major real estate developers. We will be working with these organizations to continue to help build the community in Chicago.

We recently released a report looking back on the last five years at MATTER. It’s been a terrific five years, and we look forward to continuing to help entrepreneurs and innovators develop their solutions in the months and years ahead.