CatMedica founder Yasemin Tanyildizi celebrates first place at the Goethe SDG Contest, where her start-up was honored for a novel device designed to make stroke treatment more effective.
How to present a complex product in just five minutes? That was the challenge young founder and physician Yasemin Tanyildizi and her fellow contestants had to meet when it came to pitching their innovations at the Goethe SDG Contest. “The pitch preparation in the Festsaal was excellent: the team led by Felipe Macias and Luna Köhler gave us fantastic coaching,” Tanyildizi enthuses. Her presentation was right on time – and it won over the jury.
Explaining the concept behind her winning product, Tanyildizi says: “In a stroke, a clot forms in the bloodstream that needs to be removed as quickly as possible. In addition to administering drugs, a catheter system is also used. A so-called stent retriever at the tip of the catheter grabs the clot, which then has to be removed through the catheter. The problem is that the diameter of conventional catheters is too small, which creates the risk that parts of the clot break off and remain in the bloodstream. This is exactly where our device comes in: we’ve developed a mechanism that, much like a funnel, ensures no part of the clot is lost. Our device is compatible with standard catheter systems, meaning doctors do not have to change their established routines.”
Over the past few years, the device has been continuously developed, tested, and improved, with the fifth prototype now in place. In the very beginning, Tanyildizi says, she experimented on her own with the simplest of tools to figure out what such a device would need to look like. At a certain point, of course, she began working with professional engineers. The road to market readiness is still long, but important milestones have already been reached.
Yasemin Tanyildizi is a trained neurocardiologist, has personally inserted catheters in surgery, and knows the field in depth. She even wrote her habilitation thesis on the topic and published a key paper on it in Scientific Reports, a journal from Nature. But to continue developing her idea, she had to acquire extensive business knowledge. “I had to address the question of what CatMedica’s go-to-market strategy would be. On the one hand, you have to convince hospitals, which usually procure medical devices through purchasing consortia. On the other hand, the health insurance providers are our most important stakeholders. The key argument is that an additional device like ours can improve stroke care even further – while significantly reducing costs.”
Tanyildizi expects the device to be approved by the end of 2029. Typically, start-ups are sold at that point, although a few brave ones venture into independent operations. “There’s so much I’ve learned over the past few years. The Unibator bootcamp preparing us for the pitch was also incredibly valuable. For example, the session where a lawyer explained contract structures for spin-offs – I’m sure I’ll draw on that in the years to come.”
Born in Frankfurt and an alumna of Goethe University, Tanyildizi was also thrilled to succeed with her idea on Westend Campus: “Standing on stage in the beautiful Festsaal and taking first place at the Goethe SDG Contest – simply amazing!”
