Startups

The pharmaceuticals giant selected the five companies from more than 200 applications from 48 countries to participate in this year's Grants4Apps program.

However, this will allow big companies to mine these "zombie" start-ups for talent or innovative technologies that could bolster existing solutions.

Seven companies selected for the program will receive an optional $20,000 stipend (for a 6% stake), office space in Louisville, and access to a mentor network.

This will be Healthbox's fourth program in Chicago and fourteenth overall, where they have worked with 105 healthcare startups and invested in 85 to date.

With 8 new startups enrolled, the accelerator now counts 68 companies with more than 140 entrepreneurs in its alumni community.

Companies accepted to the program will participate in a 16-week boot camp from July to October, and will be offered tools and support to kickstart their growth.

The top three deals the research firm has tracked include Zenefits with $500 million, Allscripts with $200 million, and Oscar with $150 million.

There were 139 deals and the average deal size was over $15 million, exceeding 2014's $14.6 million, though Rock only looks at US deals over $2 million.

Top three deals include employee benefits manager Zenefits ($500M), health insurer Oscar ($145M), and life science company NantBioScience ($100M).

The collaboration will bring together Aurora's integrated health care system with StartUp Health's broad network of entrepreneurs and their innovations.