RCT Ventures Announces 2013 MedTech Idol: LIM Innovations
6.28.2013
Tucson, Ariz. – Jun 28, 2013
— LIM Innovations Wins Most Outstanding MedTech Opportunity
RCT Ventures, an investment program of Research Corporation Technologies focused on early-stage biomedical companies, announced that LIM Innovations is the winner of the first annual MedTech Idol competition. Unlike those that preceded it, this MedTech venture competition allowed the audience to choose the winner.
The final phase of the competition took place live on stage June 19 during the 21st Annual Medical Device Conference, hosted by law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati (WSGR). More than 600 industry professionals attended the San Francisco conference.
“In the more than two decades that we’ve been holding the Medical Device Conference, we’ve seen it grow from a small gathering of enthusiastic participants to one of the premier annual events in the industry. That made it the perfect setting in which to unveil the winner of the MedTech Idol competition, which proved to be a dynamic and engrossing contest that added another element of excitement to the conference,” said WSGR’s Casey McGlynn.
MedTech Idol began in April, when 65 early-stage medical device companies submitted their plans. An independent panel of investor judges reviewed the entries to select the MedTech Idol Top 10. The investor judges included Christopher P. Martin, President, RCT Ventures; Paul Grand, Managing Director, RCT Ventures; Ned Scheetz, Founder and Managing Director, Aphelion Capital; and Brad H. Vale, Ph.D., D.V.M., Head, Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation (JJDC). The competition was produced by RCT Ventures, and Grand acted as the event’s master of ceremonies.
“Our goal with MedTech Idol is to identify outstanding early-stage MedTech opportunities,” Grand said. “Competing in MedTech Idol gives start-ups broad exposure to industry and to investors actively investing in early-stage MedTech.”
The investor judges selected 10 companies from the initial entries to participate in the second phase of the competition, during which each was given two days to produce a one-minute video. The videos were used to select four companies to compete live on-stage during the medical device conference. The audience of investors and medical device industry professionals then voted using personal mobile devices to choose the winning LIM Innovations, which is developing prosthetic socket technology to meet important unmet clinical needs in the amputee population.
Elsevier Business Intelligence (EBI), sponsored the prize for the winner, which was designed to provide the winner with a wide range of exposure. “With so many start-ups facing a difficult time raising capital and gaining recognition among strategics, MedTech Idol was a great way, novel and fun, to help accomplish both,” said David Cassak, VP of Content at EBI. “I was truly impressed with the quality of both the winner and the other finalists. We were delighted to be a part of MedTech Idol.”
As a result of MedTech Idol, LIM will get a presenting slot at an upcoming IN3 Medical Device conference, and the company will be profiled in an upcoming issue of Elsevier’s monthly magazine START-UP: The Review of Emerging Medical Ventures. “The MedTech Idol contest gave LIM Innovations vital exposure, recognition and a wave of momentum,” said Andrew Pedtke, CEO of LIM Innovations. “Since winning, there is no looking back.”
For detailed information on each of the MedTech Idol Top 10 companies, see http://www.medtechidol.com.