Plio Surgical wins Catalyze’s pitch competition at Global Investor Forum

At this week’s Global Investor Forum, 27 March in Rotterdam, we held an exclusive pitch competition for innovative young start-ups. Plio Surgical was selected as the winner and awarded a €10,000 prize for Catalyze consultancy services, aimed at supporting the next step in their innovation journey.

Global Investor Forum is a platform bringing together investors and innovators. During this week’s event, Catalyze founder and CSO, Theodoor Rutgers, delivered a special workshop on ‘Becoming investor ready’. Alongside the workshop, registrants were invited to submit their pitches to our pitch competition, with a grand prize of €10,000 in Catalyze consulting services. The pitch competition attracted a range of start-ups representing a spectrum of innovations from life sciences, MedTech, E-Health and AI.

Plio Surgical was selected as the winning pitch among a competitive showing of innovative companies. Plio Surgical is a spin-out of Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, dedicated to addressing the urgent unmet need of reducing anastomotic leakage, one of the most serious complications following colorectal surgery. Their pioneering medical technology, the PLIO Surgical Implant, is a minimally invasive device that provides a new and safer alternative for intestinal anastomosis (the joining of two lumens together following a resection).

Gareth Gallagher, CTO at Plio Surgical, shared this response to receiving the award:

“On behalf of Plio Surgical, I am delighted to have been selected as winners of the Catalyze Pitch Contest during the Global Investor Forum. The standard of pitching was extremely high, and I was genuinely surprised to hear our name being called. I think it really reinforces how urgent and relatable the problem of anastomotic leak is.

“It is very satisfying to receive recognition for the progress we have made towards our mission, and we are sincerely grateful for the opportunity to have the support of Catalyze to help us to realize our goals. Finally, we would like to congratulate the other pitching start-ups for their amazing work, and sincerely wish them every success in the future.”

Theodoor shared why Plio Surgical was chosen:

“During the Global Investor Forum it was great to meet around 30 promising start-ups. We selected Plio Surgical for our voucher because we see an ambitious young company and dedicated team that is trying to solve a serious medical complication which is often underestimated. At the same time, they are very early stage and have a long challenging road to bring this technology to the clinic. I strongly believe early-stage companies like this deserve to succeed, and we would be happy to play a role in this and help bring their PLIO Surgical Implant closer to market. On behalf of Catalyze, I would like to thank all the participants. We have seen many great innovations and look forward to working with these start-ups.”

Visit the Plio Surgical website

About Catalyze

Catalyze is an innovation consultancy offering services to develop effective strategy, procure (non-) dilutive funding, ensure successful project delivery, and more, for clients working in the fields of life sciences & health, and green & sustainable innovations. Driven by a belief that the most meaningful innovations deserve the best chance to succeed, Catalyze has established itself as a key player in the innovation ecosystem, headquartered in Amsterdam and operating worldwide. To date, Catalyze has raised more than €1 billion in funding for its clients, built a network ecosystem of more than 2500 partners, and manages a €300M+ project portfolio.