#473: The MedTech Odyssey: Bridging Academic Science to Series A Success

Global Medical Device Podcast · 21 Sept 2026 · 42m · Episode 473

What this episode covers

Jordi Martorell, CEO and co-founder of Aortyx, discusses his journey from mapping arterial blood flow at the Harvard-MIT Biomedical Engineering Center to raising a Series A for his Class III medical device company. He explains how Aortyx sustained its multi-year development of bioresorbable endovascular patches for aortic dissection by leveraging friends-and-family rounds, Capital Cell equity crowdfunding, and European Innovation Council (EIC) grants. Martorell details the structural challenges of managing a cap table with hundreds of retail investors via syndication and SPVs to maintain clean negotiation lines for institutional VCs. He also reflects on the realities of closing a Series A in a non-traditional VC hub, facing post-pandemic inflation, and the critical importance of resilience and visibility at conferences like LSI.

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