To prove the effectiveness of his medical invention, 21-year-old founder of the startup Pilgrim, Jake Adler, demonstrated it on himself, literally cutting both his legs. After that, he managed to raise $4.3 million in investment, including from Thiel Capital and Refactor Capital.
To prove the effectiveness of his medical invention, 21-year-old founder of the startup Pilgrim, Jake Adler, demonstrated it on himself, literally cutting both his legs. After that, he managed to raise $4.3 million in investment, including from Thiel Capital and Refactor Capital.
According to Business Insider, which cited the original source, Adler performed a biopsy on both thighs in the video, treating one of the wounds with an experimental Kingsfoil dressing and leaving the other as a control. The clay-based hemostatic instantly turned into a gel and stopped the bleeding.
Kingsfoil, named after a medicinal herb from The Lord of the Rings, is supposed to stop bleeding and speed up wound healing. The product itself is not yet certified, but it is planned to be promoted through the FDA’s accelerated procedure. If the regulator finds it not unique, the product could be approved in as little as six months.
Investors responded favorably: Cantos led the first round, and Day One Ventures, Joshua Browder, and others also joined. The video itself, according to Adler, does not replace clinical trials, but demonstrates the founder’s willingness to take decisive steps.
Pilgrim is also developing two other products: the Voyager inhaler for protection against toxic substances and the ARGUS system for detecting chemical and biological threats. A team of five people works from an office-laboratory in California.
The U.S. military is a key market for the startup, Adler said. But Pilgrim wants to eventually expand into the civilian market. The founder says he wants to create a «long-lasting institution» with a dual purpose for both the defense sector and everyday life.
We also published an article about how the international online therapy platform Clearly, founded by Ukrainian entrepreneurs and registered in the US, attracted 1.352 million euros in investments. The leader of the round was the Czech fund Purple Ventures, which invested 760 thousand euros.
