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GOOSE Portfolio Company wins MedTech Innovator Competition

Forest Devices, a GOOSE portfolio company, was voted MedTech Innovator 2019.  GOOSE invested over $2M in Forest Devices after the team won the Rice Business Plan Competition Grand Prize of $300,000.  GOOSE is incredibly proud of how hard this team has worked and excited for their future.  See below for the full press release.

Forest Devices & GOOSE at RBPC

Boston, MA (September 25, 2022), 1:14PM — Forest Devices, Inc., a startup medical device company developing the first portable stroke screening technology, has won the MedTech Innovator 2019 Showcase. Forest competed alongside a field of 800 other medical device companies for the title of “MedTech Innovator 2019.” In addition, Forest Devices received a $350,000 grand prize award.

MedTech Innovator is the industry’s non-profit global competition for medical devices, digital health, and diagnostic companies. Over 800 companies applied for this year’s program. Of those, 50 were selected to take part in the Medtech Innovator Showcase, and just five were chosen for a final pitch competition at the Medtech Conference in Boston, MA. On Tuesday, September 24th, Matt Kesinger, CEO, delivered the winning pitch. Upon accepting the award, Kesinger said, “It is an incredible honor to be recognized by the medtech community, especially given the other fantastic finalists in the competition. The funding will support us in bringing our game-changing technology to market.”

Forest Devices would like to thank Medtech Innovator for the opportunities, network, and resources provided through the program over the past few months. The company would also like to extend its gratitude to its investors, employees, and advisors who have made this possible.
Founded in 2015, Forest Devices, Inc. is a Pittsburgh-based medical device startup company that is developing AlphaStroke, the first device designed to detect stroke in any environment. The mission of Forest Devices is to reduce the disability of stroke victims by getting these patients needed treatments faster.

Full story here.

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GOOSE Leads Lantha Inc’s $2.6M Series A

First Financing by GOOSE into a University of Texas Technology

Houston, TX, October 2, 2022

The GOOSE Society of Texas and Lantha Inc., a solid-state chemical sensor start-up, today announced the closing of a $2.6 million Series A Preferred Stock financing.  Proceeds will be used to finalize the development of Lantha’s commercial products, hire key personnel, and further buttress and expand Lantha’s intellectual property portfolio. The company expects to have its initial product on the market by the first quarter of next year.

Lantha has developed a unique, broadly applicable chemical sensor platform technology that it expects will disrupt many markets, including moisture analysis, trace chemical detection and analysis and fuel integrity testing.  The technology is a novel form of solid-state chemical sensors invented by research chemists at the University of Texas.  Dr. Simon Humphrey, Associate Professor of Chemistry at UT, is the principal inventor and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Lantha.

Lantha’s hand-held reader and single-use, disposable solid-state sensors are faster, cheaper and easier to use than traditional analytic tools such as NMR, FTIR and Karl Fischer Titration, and are just as accurate.  Robert Toker, CEO and Chairman of Lantha, said, “We have world class scientists, who are the inventors of our technology, and a strong founding team, and we’ve attracted a great group of investors led by Jeff Smisek and the GOOSE Society in Houston as well as several prominent investors associated with the University of Texas at Austin. Jeff, Samantha Lewis, Executive Director of the GOOSE Society, and the entire GOOSE team are now our team; they have invested not only their capital but also considerable time, energy and wisdom that have improved our information and decision-making quality.  Partnering with GOOSE has materially improved our chances of success.”

This is the GOOSE Society’s first investment into a UT technology.  “We are excited about expanding GOOSE’s investment efforts to UT and look forward to future collaborations and deals,” said Lewis. Several high-profile investors from the UT community invested in Lantha’s Series A Preferred Stock alongside GOOSE investors.

Jeff Smisek, founder of investment firm Flight Partners Management LLC, led the deal and will take a seat on Lantha’s board of directors.  He said, “Lantha is a great example of the GOOSE Society’s investment thesis — a company with proprietary and disruptive technology, low capital costs, large addressable markets, speedy product development and high margins which can benefit from the vast experience and contacts of the GOOSE Society’s investors. We are proud to lead this financing and look forward to working closely with Lantha’s management and world class scientists as they build a powerhouse in the field-based chemical analysis market.”

About GOOSE Society:

The GOOSE Society of Texas is a Houston based investment group comprised of high net worth, successful business executives and investors.  GOOSE has invested over $50 million in early stage start-ups and has had numerous successful exits.  The group invests around $10 million per year across a variety of industries, but with a focus on breakthrough, proprietary technologies.

About Lantha:

Lantha is commercializing a novel technology developed by research chemists at the University of Texas that allows rapid, low-cost, point-of-use trace chemical detection and measurement.  The company’s proprietary metal organic framework (MOF) sensor technology, called PCM-22, consists of a MOF framework embedded with chromophores and lanthanide ions, all on a nano-scale, that emit unique color and intensity signals in the presence of analytes upon exposure to ultraviolet light, permitting highly accurate chemical measurement.  Lantha has significant addressable markets across a large range of industries, ranging from pharmaceuticals to oil and gas to water to defense.

Additional Press:

Innovation Map Article

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GOOSE Co-Leads Syzygy’s Series A with MIT Fund, The Engine

Syzygy Raises $5.8 Million to Reduce Carbon Emissions in Chemical Manufacturing  

HOUSTON, Texas — Syzygy Plasmonics, a technology company developing the world’s highest performance photocatalyst, today announced it has raised $5.8 million in Series A funding. Co-led by The Engine, the venture capital firm launched by MIT in 2016 to invest in early-stage Tough Tech companies, and by The GOOSE Society of Texas, a Houston based investment group comprised of successful entrepreneurs that invest in early-stage disruptive technology companies. The round includes participation from EVOK Innovations and angel investors from Creative Destruction Labs-Rockies Cohort.

Syzygy is developing a new photocatalytic chemical reactor powered by light from renewable electricity instead of heat from burning fuel. Syzygy’s photocatalytic reactor holds promise to revolutionize the industrial gas, chemical and energy industries by drastically reducing the cost and carbon emissions in the production process for a wide range of major commodity chemicals such as fuel, fertilizer and plastic. Based upon two decades of research and breakthroughs in materials science from world-renowned Professors Naomi Halas and Peter Nordlander at Rice University (Laboratory for Nanophotonics), the photocatalyst being used is orders of magnitude more active, stable and efficient than any previous photocatalyst.

“The pioneering work by Professors Halas and Nordlander and the commercialization efforts by Syzygy — a tremendous synergy between academia and industry — gives the energy industry a new advantage in the fight against climate change,” said Trevor Best, CEO and co-founder of Syzygy. “We see a future where it is possible for all fuels, chemicals, and fertilizers to be produced both sustainably and at a lower cost than other options. We now have a real opportunity to reduce, if not completely, eliminate the carbon footprint associated with these production process.”

“We started Syzygy to utilize breakthroughs in plasmonic science to drastically reduce the cost and carbon emissions in the chemicals and energy industries,” said Suman Khatiwada, CTO and co-founder of Syzygy. “Our technology has the potential to provide a positive global impact on these industries and the people they serve by enhancing sustainability, improving accessibility, lowering cost, and enabling new business models.”

The new investment will power Syzygy’s facility expansion and hiring to scale product development of its photocatalytic reactor.

“Syzygy is creating a platform technology through its new photocatalytic chemical reactor that has the potential to transform how we approach chemicals manufacturing — using light instead of burning fossils as a new power source for chemical reactors,” said Katie Rae, CEO and managing partner of The Engine. “The Engine is thrilled to help advance the mission of this incredibly driven and passionate team of founders to enable a future of zero-emission chemicals manufacturing.”

Today’s investment comes on the heels of other significant developments for Syzygy. Earlier this year, Syzygy received grants from the Department of Energy for the development of a reactor to create hydrogen from ammonia and from the National Science Foundation SBIR Program for the development of a reactor that processes carbon dioxide.

Samantha Lewis, Director of GOOSE, commented, “The Syzygy team is sound, the technology is incredibly exciting, and we love the Rice University connection. GOOSE is very pleased with this investment and excited about GOOSE investor Don Kendall, former board director of Solar City, taking the lead as a board director of Syzygy.”

Additional Press:

MIT Technology Review

Business Wire

Innovation Map

Saranas Receives FDA Approval in March, and already reaches another milestone

Early Bird Bleed Monitoring System developed by Saranas, a GOOSE portfolio company, at the Texas Heart Institute in Houston received a much-anticipated FDA approval in March 2019. Saranas Early Bird Bleed Monitoring System detects bleeding in real-time, allowing doctors to act quickly and improve the outcomes of the procedures and recovery of the patient.  

This month, Saranas reached another milestone as a new study validates the effectiveness of the Saranas Early Bird Bleed Monitoring System. The system successfully detected bleeding events during endovascular related procedures on 60 patients enrolled in the study.

This is very important news for patients who need transcatheter aortic valve replacement, or other large-bore endovascular procedures. Currently, one in five patients experience bleeding complications during these procedures. Saranas Early Bird Monitoring System significantly reduces risk of mortality, length of hospital stays, and healthcare costs caused by bleeding complications. 

Philippe Genereux, MD, principal investigator, cardiologist and physician at Morristown Medical Center in Morristown, NJ commented on the study results: “This is the first time we’re seeing how this device could help in a real-world patient setting, and we were very encouraged by the results. Right now, patients have a risk of vessel injury when undergoing endovascular procedures where the femoral artery or vein is used for vascular access.” GOOSE is extremely excited about the news. We look forward to support Saranas in reaching their next goals.

Texas A&M New Ventures Competition

On May 15th and 16th of 2019, GOOSE participated in the Texas A&M New Ventures Competition for the second year in a row. The competition, organized by Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station, the Texas A&M University System, and a growing number of sponsors (including GOOSE), aims to promote and commercialize Texas based companies with innovative ideas. The competition recognized companies focused on emerging technologies, with high-growth potential. GOOSE and other sponsors provide cash and investment prizes to help the companies execute their ideas and advance the product development.

The prize pool for this year’s competition was the largest yet, exceeding $500,000. Twenty-two Texas startups competed for the prizes. This year, Spark Biomedical was awarded the grand prize: $50,000. Spark Biomedical is a medical device company developing non-invasive neurostimulation solutions for opioid withdrawal and addiction.

Goose members David Klein and Larry Lawson judged the competition and were very impressed with the competitors. GOOSE awarded PolyVascular a $25,000 prize with potential for more. PolyVascular is developing a polymeric transcatheter valve for children. The transcatheter polymeric valves by PolyVascular are unique, because they expand as the child grows. That eliminates the need of repeat open heart surgeries for children with congenital heart disease. In addition to the GOOSE investment prize, PolyVascular won three other awards:

  • 1st place in the Elevator Pitch Competition – $5,000
  • Biotex Investment Prize
  • Amerra Visualization Services Prize

GOOSE is very optimistic about the future of the company. We look forward to working with PolyVascular.

David Klein awarding the GOOSE invetment prize to PolyVascular. From the left:  Chris Scotti, PolyVascular Team: Daniel Harrington – CSO, Kwonsoo Chun – CTO, Henri Justino – CMO, David Klein – GOOSE.

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