Piraye Yurttas Beim, PhD,
Co-Founder and CEO, Celmatix, Inc.
After emerging from academia, molecular biologist Piraye Yurttas Beim, one of a handful of experts in the genetics and molecular biology of female mammalian infertility, set out to apply her substantial scientific skills to improving the treatment of female infertility by developing innovative diagnostic tools, technologies and methods. “I wanted to take some of the guesswork out of achieving a viable pregnancy and ultimately transform how we approach infertility,” she says.
In May of 2009, Beim and neuroscientist Laura Toward Bandak, co-founded their biotech baby and named it, Celmatix, Inc.
While the pair’s combined scientific scholarship was formidable, their entrepreneurial expertise was less robust. “The training you get as a scientific researcher doesn’t necessarily overlap with the knowledge base you need to be a successful entrepreneur,” says Beim. As “academics evolving into entrepreneurs,” they needed help to nurture their start-up.
“And that’s how we came to the Center for Biotechnology,” says Beim. “The Center is so important in helping scientists like us, who have an entrepreneurial idea and want to create a company, to turn the research into a product that has commercial potential.”
Beginning in September 2009, Celmatix took part in various Center programs starting with the BioStrategy Sessions. “In those sessions, we gained critical insights that helped us refine our business plan and retool our initial investor’s pitch deck,” says Beim.
During the Technology Commercialization Clinic (TCC) program, Celmatix interacted with business and law students studying intellectual property and other relevant law. “They helped us focus on the competitive landscape around the technological approach that we were using to optimize fertility treatment and care,” says Beim. “And the market research they gathered furthered our understanding of the reproductive technology landscape, what existed and how our approach and technology fit into the terrain, she adds. In addition, the TCC helped “us appreciate certain aspects of the competitive landscape that hadn’t been obvious to us.”
In March of 2010, Celmatix participated in the 2 ½ day Long Island Innovation Boot Camp/Pre-Seed Workshop where they had the valuable opportunity to pitch their business model to a panel of judges including advisors and investors who offered constructive feedback. One of those investors was Steve Winick, a partner at Topspin, a Long Island-based private equity firm. After Celmatix pitched the panel, Winick approached Beim and told her to contact him when the company was ready to raise funding. About a year later in February of 2012, Topspin Partners led the company’s Series A round funding that raised 8.5 million in capital. The infusion of funds enabled Celmatix to expand its research efforts and continue its development of its lead product, FertilArray ™, a non-invasive diagnostic for assessing female egg quality and genetic indicators of female infertility.
Looking back, Beim says the Center was critically helpful. “We learned how to translate scientific work into investor friendly terminology, honed our presentation skills and became fluent in the language of venture capital coming to understand and explain a value proposition and how the vision of what we had fit into the framework of a commercial enterprise,” she says. “ And all those pieces ultimately helped us have the conversations we needed to raise funds The Center was one of our early supporters; they believed in what we were doing.” adds Beim.”They helped Celmatix go from start up to success story.