From Personal Loss to Global Innovation: Oshkosh Startup Wins Governor’s Business Plan Contest for Life-Saving Wound Care Solution
An Oshkosh-based company that has created a new dressing to serve people with diabetic foot ulcers won the grand prize of this year’s annual Governor’s Business Plan Contest.
With the goal of encouraging entrepreneurs of tech-enabled businesses in their startup stage in the state, the contest is an annual competition.
Phoenix-Aid won the grand prize. It’s a company based in Oshkosh that developed a dressing for chronic wounds like diabetic foot ulcers.
Chief Executive Officer Ashwinraj Karthikeyan said the company’s dressings will serve underserved markets worldwide, and that all R&D and manufacturing will continue to be done in Wisconsin.
He told WPR that his grandmother died from a diabetic foot ulcer and wanted to find a way to help. “There’s a lot of really cool, advanced products out there, but [some people] don’t have access to those things, or they don’t have the trained medical professionals who know how to use them,” Karthikeyan said, according to WPR.
Their main product, called Phoenix-Aid Protect, has multiple layers in a carbon wound dressing, which is engineered to be effective, affordable, and easy to use, according to the company.
They also say their efforts can reduce complications at half the costs, helping patients have access to dressings that offer more ease. These have been approved for clinical trials in India, according to the company.
The Governor’s Business Plan Contest connects entrepreneurs with the many resources within the state, like community resources and experts who judge and mentor within the contest. Entrants also potentially will make connections that can lead to investment. In this way, the process is not only a competition but also a way for state entrepreneurs to connect and have access to resources they may not have known about – and to be discovered by others, as well, within Wisconsin.
The contest is free to enter and is organized by the Wisconsin Technology Council . It’s also supported by multiple partners, including the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation. Individuals, teams or companies are eligible if they are 18 and older with a business plan that employs or leverages technology. They also need to not have received more than $50,000 in private equity funding as of the beginning of the year.
Since it began in 2004, among those who have become finalists, 77% are still in business, and finalists have garnered $320 million in investor and grant funding. For these finalists, the contest has also led to cash and in-kind prizes like legal, accounting, office space, and marketing assistance valued at nearly $3 million.
The contest includes a five-month process, including three rounds of judging for finalists as well as creating and submitting a 15-minute video pitch deck to judges.
More than 4,800 start-ups have entered the contest since it began, representing 350 Wisconsin communities.
The winner in the Advanced Manufacturing category was Galasys, based in Janesville, which developed a manufacturing technology that converts a dairy byproduct into tagatose, a natural and low-calorie sweetener.
The Business Services winner was Equability, based in Madison, which is a company that can adapt clothes to help people struggling with dexterity or other disabilities by, for example, replacing traditional fasteners with magnets, Velcro or straps.
And the Information Technology category winner was Strudel, another company based in Madison. Strudel has a proprietary AI agent that analyzes production data, code and logs in an effort to resolve customer-support issues and help software engineers focus instead on innovation.
