Eleven startups from across the Lone Star State showed off their ideas and innovations in front of a panel of local leaders at the Startup World Cup Texas Regional Competition at Capital Factory in Dallas Thursday night.
Hailing from almost every major city from the state and spanning industries from medtech to AI, the companies made their pitches in the hopes of advancing to the finals and a $1 million grand prize.
However, only one startup could move on. And at the end of the night, it was Houston-based Lazarus 3D.
“One thing that’s really important is it’s not just about the grand prize… just having the opportunity to pitch and explain their company… is a great opportunity for them,” said Noah Leshan, partnership manager for Startup World Cup, at the event.
Lazarus 3D was launched in 2014 and has seen about 563% growth over the last four years without receiving any VC funding. The biotech startup is focused on making realistic 3D organs for students and doctors to practice on before performing surgery. Doctors are able to upload scans of a patient’s organs, and within 24 hours, Lazarus is able to print a 3D model and ship it back to the doctor. When not processing specific orders, Lazarus uses its patented technology to print generic medical practice models for things like sutures.
According to co-founder and President Jacques Zaneveld, the company has hit a number of milestones recently. In January, Lazarus posted its first quarterly profit since launching. The company has also completed its testing for FDA approval, which it expects to receive by summer of this year. In addition, a recently change rule will allow patients to bill the cost for the model to insurance and Medicare.
Lazarus was also one of the winners of the Dallas leg of the SoGal Global Pitch Competition in November.
“If a surgeon is doing a new surgery, they’ll likely do it on someone like you and me and we can see statistically that leads to risk, liability, expense and damage to patients,” Zaneveld said at the event. “What really drives our team is the impact we’re having on patient outcomes.”
Started in 2016, the Startup World Cup, which is sponsored by Pegasus Tech Ventures, is one of the largest pitch competitions in the world. In 2020, the competition will span nearly 50 countries and has received about 10,000 applicants. This year’s finals will be held in San Francisco in May, where finalists will compete for the $1 million grand prize.
Other startups that made pitches in Dallas included:
Previous winners of the Startup World Cup include Japan-based IoT solutions startup UniFa, which went on to land nearly $10 million in funding. MIT blood testing tech startup Leuko won in 2018, later going on to land a $1.8 million Seed funding from Pegasus, Good Growth Capital and Nina Capital, among others.
“We had a really great response [for the DFW community],” said Charlotte Danielsson, executive director at Silicon Vikings, which helped put on the Texas leg of Startup World Cup, at the event.
