Innovative Bone Healing Technology Wins Over $700,000 from TiE at the Rice Business Plan Competition

HOUSTON: A student team from Aachen (Germany), Medical Magnesium, are set to revolutionize orthopaedic surgery with their innovative implant technology, which could prevent millions of unnecessary operations, speed up healing, and create better patient outcomes.

Founded by graduate students from RWTH Aachen University, Medical Magnesium stunned judges at the Rice Business Plan Competition (RBPC), held at Rice University on April 6-8, 2017, with their research and commercialisation prospects, winning over $700,000 from TiE in investment prize money including $200,000 from the TiE Houston Angels Network and $500,000 from Elevate Capital (A leading early stage institutional VC based in the Portland Oregon, led by Managing Director, Nitin Rai, with roots in TiE Oregon Angels).

Speaking of their experience, Florian Coppers (CEO, Medical Magnesium) said, “We are overwhelmed by the positive response throughout the entire competition. Winning this investment prize is a big step towards transforming our technology into business. ”

Arun Pasrija, President of TiE Houston said, “TiE has been running feeder competitions in Asia and Europe for RBPC for over 6 years, this is the first time a TiE team has made it into the finals. The entrepreneurs in our Houston chapter provide the essential mentoring, support and guidance these entrepreneurs. It’s a hugely successful initiative for us, and something we’re very proud of.”

Every years, during the first half of the week leading to RBBC, TiE Houston conducts a mentoring boot camp to help prepare teams from Asia and Europe to participate in RBBC.

This was a special year for RBPC with 2014 winners Adhesys announcing the largest ever exit in the competitions’ history. Ashok Rao, serial entrepreneur, principal investor and Chairman of Adhesys, and past Chairman of TiE Global said, “It has been an absolute pleasure working with some of the smartest yet most coachable young founders I’ve ever interacted with. I see the same potential in Medical Magnesium that I saw in Adhesys when they competed three years ago.”

Nitin Rai, Vice Chair TiE Global, President of TiE Oregon Angels and founder of Elevate Capital stunned the audience by announcing a $500,000 of investment from Elevate to Medical Magnesium in a surprise announcement. Speaking about the company he said, “Elevate invests in passionate entrepreneurs who are solving real world problems with disruptive products. Medical Magnesium’s ground-breaking implant technology and high calibre team was a compelling reason to support it with the investment.”

Michael Raspino, Chair of TiE Houston Angels who put together over a $200,000 investment prize said, “Medical Magnesium delivered an impressive presentation and pitched an investment opportunity with great growth potential, in a space where our investors have a demonstrated ability to add value beyond the money. TiE Houston is pleased to collaborate with investors from across the global network from Oregon, London and Boston to commit over $700,000 to this TiE sponsored start-up. ”

The TiE Effect
After winning the TiE European Finals in London, Medical Magnesium attended a three day intensive boot camp with TiE mentors from around the world helping to shape and prepare their business for RBPC. Kilian Reuss (CTO, Medical Magensium) said, “The boot camp with the great TiE Society has been the key factor to this success at RPBC 2017. In fact, it has taken our venture on a next level.…”

Professor Vikas Shah, a serial-entrepreneur from the United Kingdom who worked closely with the team during their boot camp and the competition said, “Every year we mentor entrepreneurs so they not only stand a great chance of winning at the competition, but also- most importantly- which stand a serious chance of succeeding commercially. Medical Magnesium are an exceptional team, with huge real-world business potential, it was an honor working with them.”