Truesix helped introduce Aortyx to the international media environment, gaining visibility not only in the European innovations space but also generating attention for their work in the global cardiovascular conversation through publicity in trade publications.

Challenge

Aortyx has spent years developing a novel biotechnology – a patch manufactured with electrospinning, a method that emulates how spiders produce their silk - that can be used to seal the holes in torn aortas using a minimally invasive delivery system. Aortyx expects this strategy to be more effective than current treatments. While working with a skilled team and the best vascular surgeons in Spain, they had one problem – they weren't very known outside of their country. 

Acknowledging that the vast Spanish investment ecosystem was enough to support them to their Series A fundraising round, they were aware that for the next round, they would likely need the support from international VC investors to continue to scale the product further. But how can you attract the support of investors who haven't heard of you?

The challenge then became – how to best make the international startup community aware of this Spanish scaleup? How to introduce them to the consciousness of international VCs in the cardiovascular biotech space, so that when the next round comes along, they are not only aware of the company, but also eager to get involved in the cap table?

Solution

The solution was to increase online visibility in international markets and media well before they began Series B fundraising. We would use the news about the current Series A round, which was mostly made up of Spanish investors, to start laying the foundation for international visibility. 

We came up with a strategy to announce the Series A funding round of 13.8M EUR to two key audiences. One, geared towards the European innovations community, and the other, towards the global cardiovascular technology industry. This way, we would lay the groundwork for brand awareness in Europe and in the eyes of future European investors, as well as provide robust English-language coverage online that investors could come across after a quick search. Meanwhile, the cardiovascular component served as driving visibility among their industry peers, with the potential to contribute to future collaborations or inbound leads.

The outreach campaign would be conducted in parallel with the investors, who had excellent ties to national Spanish media outlets, to maximize visibility both internationally and in their home market.

Results

The campaign resulted in over 30 publications in innovations and cardiovascular trade media. 

Apart from having been published in local Spanish newspapers, the story was covered by Europe’s most-read startup news platforms – Tech.eu, Sifted, EU Startups, Tech Funding News, Startup Rise, and more.

The story also broke into the global media landscape, with publicity in major mass media outlets like Yahoo! and MSN.

Arguably most importantly, the news was also covered in many globally-relevant cardiovascular technology media outlets, including Mass Device, Medical Tubing & Extrusion, Diagnostics World News, Medical Device Network, and more.

In fact, as soon as the news broke on Mass Device, cardiovascular investors that Aortyx had been in conversations with, reached out to say “wow, congrats, you made it!”

Now, a quick search about Aortyx will result in an abundant amount of coverage about the company, its innovation, the technology behind it, as well as previous funding rounds.