Lincare Signs Partnership with Plug and Play to Source Top Startups

SUNNYVALE, CA April 26, 2022 - Lincare, a leading DME and Respiratory Services company in the U.S., has announced its new partnership with global innovation platform, Plug and Play. Throughout this partnership, they will be focused on finding solutions to help their own business and their customers in regards to healthcare, IoT, and more.

Lincare’s CEO (Crispin Teufel) and VP of Business Process Improvement (Noah Chitwood) alongside Linde’s Digital Head of Commercialization & Partnerships (Haik Mehmke) and Head of New Business Development (Mathias Mostertz) visited Plug and Play’s headquarters in Silicon Valley, California. Linde is the parent company of Lincare and a partner at Startup Autobahn in Stuttgart, Germany.

Lincare CEO Crispin Teufel said the company is excited for this partnership. “The healthcare industry is quickly evolving, and it's important for Lincare to remain nimble and on the forefront of innovation as we aggressively take on new services to enhance our patient experience and improve our operational processes,” said Crispin. “With the digitalization of processes and services allowing for innovation in areas not previously seen, Lincare will pave the way for the future of in-home patient care.” The areas of opportunity include patient communications, telehealth, and AI for predictive modeling.

Lincare partnered with Plug and Play to gain access to startup deal flow around specific topics important to Lincare. Plug and Play’s ventures team will specifically source startups based on Lincare’s areas of focus surrounding health and insurance, enterprise, supply chain, and the internet of things.

In the first month of Plug and Play and Lincare’s collaboration, Lincare has already started a POC with a startup centered around omni-channel communications and improving patient experience.

“We are proud to have this collaboration with Lincare. Together, we will target digital innovation in the at-home respiratory services segment of the healthcare industry and set benchmarks in patient experience and condition management,” said Saeed Amidi, CEO of Plug and Play.

About Lincare

Lincare is the largest U.S. provider of respiratory care in the home with a broad geographic reach, offering an extensive portfolio of quality products and services: Respiratory Therapy, Sleep Therapy, INR Testing, Nebulizer and Respiratory Medications, Enteral Therapy, and Durable Medical Equipment. Lincare’s mission is to set the standard for excellence, transforming the way respiratory care is delivered in the home. We are inspired by a vision to enable patients with chronic conditions to remain engaged in life, with the peace of mind that we are caring for them. Visitwww.lincare.com.

About Plug and Play

Plug and Play is the leading innovation platform, connecting startups, corporations, venture capital firms, universities, and government agencies. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, we're present in 40+ locations across 5 continents. We offer corporate innovation programs and help our corporate partners in every stage of their innovation journey, from education to execution. We also organize startup acceleration programs and have built an in-house VC to drive innovation across multiple industries where we've invested in hundreds of successful companies including Dropbox, Guardant Health, Honey, Lending Club, N26, PayPal, and Rappi. For more information, visit https://www.plugandplaytechcenter.com/

About Linde

Linde is a leading global industrial gases and engineering company with 2019 sales of $28 billion (€25 billion). We live our mission of making our world more productive every day by providing high-quality solutions, technologies and services which are making our customers more successful and helping to sustain and protect our planet.

The company serves a variety of end markets including aerospace, chemicals, food and beverage, electronics, energy, healthcare, manufacturing and primary metals. Linde's industrial gases are used in countless applications, from life-saving oxygen for hospitals to high-purity & specialty gases for electronics manufacturing, hydrogen for clean fuels and much more. Linde also delivers state-of-the-art gas processing solutions to support customer expansion, efficiency improvements and emissions reductions.

For more information about the company and its products and services, please visit www.linde.com.