RWTH Start-Up Medical Magnesium Successful in the World's Largest Business Plan Competition - Innovative Implants minimize Pain and Risk
In the RICE Business Plan Competition (RBPC), the largest and most lucrative university competition for start-ups worldwide, the RWTH start-up "Medical Magnesium" reached third place. This award is accompanied by financing of 700,000 US dollars. In addition, the four RWTH graduates Florian Coppers, Kilian Reuß, Alexander Kopp and Christoph Ptock won the so-called Elevator Pitch Contest.
"We are overwhelmed by the positive response from investors and experts to our technology and business idea. The resounding success at RBPC is an important impulse for the further development of the company."
Florian Coppers, Managing Director of Medical Magnesium together with Kilian Reuß
The Technology
The removal of orthopaedic implants is a painful, risky and expensive procedure that has been necessary for many fractures so far. Medical Magnesium develops novel magnesium implants that are transformed into bone after fracture healing, eliminating the need for a second operation to remove orthopedic implants. The pain and the risk as well as the costs for the health system are greatly reduced. Based on an innovative technology platform, Medical Magnesium develops and certifies two product lines.
The Start-Up
Medical Magnesium is financed by an EXIST start-up grant of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy and supported by the Transfer- und Entrepeneurship Centre as well as the Laboratory for Machine Tools and Production Engineering (WZL) of RWTH Aachen University. Professor Fitz Klocke, Director at the WZL and Chair of Manufacturing Technology, and Dr. Markus Zeis, Group Leader for Electrochemical Processing, accompanied and advised the founding team in the form of an extensive mentoring program.
The RICE Business Plan Competition
The Rice Alliance organizes the RICE Business Plan Competition each year for Technology and Entrepreneurship at Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business at the University of Houston, Texas. The first competition was held in 2001 with nine teams and $10,000 in prize money. Since then, the competition has grown to 42 teams in the final round and more than $1.5 million in prize money.