PerAGraft - Individualized Implants For Cardiovascular Applications
How would you describe your business idea to a potential investor?
Each person is unique! Thus, PerAGraft develops patient individualized implants for cardiovascular applications. We combine an end-to-end digital process chain with an innovative textile manufacturing process. Our approach is to merge product- and process-based innovation into novel tailored implants using a fast and reliable implant design process to perfectly match the patient’s needs.
Combining speed, precision, and simplicity, our goal is to deliver best-in-class treatment through tailored implant solutions defining a new era in patient-centered care.
What problem do you want to solve, what is your goal?
Patient individualized implants for soft tissue applications require a long manufacturing time and usually imply high manual effort in production. In case of complex aortic aneurysms, a bulge-like weakness in the aorta, it may take up to several weeks or even months before the patient receives the custom-made implant. Our aim is to deliver patient individualized implants in a fraction of time, making the implants immediately available for patients in need, save people’s lives and increase therapy success for the patient through our unique product features.
How did you come up with your concept?
10 years ago, all three founders still at university, we got excited about the question of how to define the best treatment option for the patient. Although each person is unique, we usually treat patients with off-the-shelf implants. As engineers, finding solutions to overcome current limitations in designing and manufacturing personalized implants, became our passion and has driven us ever since. Plenty of research, effort, two Ph.D. theses, and a lot of fun were merged by the founders into this idea. In 2018, we decided to leave the scientific ground and start the entrepreneurial journey. The PerAGraft team is now dedicated to bringing their tailored implant solutions into clinical routine.
What is your business model?
We are working on a B2B business model, which is based primarily on selling the implants to hospitals. Additionally, we would like to add in the future a comprehensive range of services for all stakeholders (hospitals and surgeons, health insurances).
What is special about PerAGraft?
We are experts in the field of textile implants and combining our expertise results in the perfect symbiosis for our product. Although to bringing an implantable medical device to market the road is long and challenging, we are dedicated to exactly achieve this goal. The fascination to understand what happens at the intersection of a technical spare part and the biological host is driving us every day. We want to learn and implement these findings in designing and developing new implants, perfectly matching each patient’s individuals needs. We are fully aware that we still need to include and acquire on our journey many skills and knowledge — this is why we listen, learn and constantly improve to reach our goals and realize a more patient-centered care.
Why did you decide to work with XPRENEURS?
Since the beginning of her studies at TUM, Valentine, one of our co-founders, has been delighted by the entrepreneurial spirit carried through UnternehmerTUM. At the end of last year, we found ourselves in a position in which we felt the need for fresh input as a matter to help us moving forward with PerAGraft. The XPRENEURS program seemed the perfect deal for us and our goals. The inspiring network, the great input throughout all the sessions, and the tireless efforts by the XPRENEURS team itself made it an unforgettable experience for us. It enabled us to reach the next level on our journey, now moving into our first fundraising round.
You can get more information about PerAGraft on their website or follow on LinkedIn.
You want to become part of the XPRENEURS incubator program as well?
Get more information and apply at https://xpreneurs.io/
