CWRU senior to showcase Asclepii at the prestigious festival’s 15th annual pitch competition

In late 2022, Franco Kraiselburd, a senior studying biomedical engineering at Case Western Reserve University, founded Asclepii, a startup focused on using stem cells to improve wound care. His company is now a finalist in the pitch competition at South By Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, Texas.

SXSW Pitch, the marquee event of SXSW Conference & Festivals, is slated to take place from March 8 through March 16, when Kraiselburd will join other startups from around the world showcase some of the most impressive technological innovations to a panel of hand-picked judges and a live audience.

Out of the 670 companies that applied to present at SXSW Pitch 2024, Asclepii was selected among the 45 finalists spanning nine separate categories.

Inspired by his early experiences working in a medical lab, Kraiselburd founded Asclepii. But his ambitions include making the next generation of tissue technology, “pushing the boundaries of tissue engineering towards new horizons.”

“Since I was 14, I’ve been working on disruptive medical innovation focused on clinical impact and global accessibility, aiming to improve the reality of the communities that need it the most, especially Latin America, where I grew up,” he said. “It’s a dream to have been selected to compete at such a prestigious event.”

SXSW Pitch will feature finalists across the following nine categories: Artificial Intelligence, Robotics & Voice, Enterprise & Smart Data, Entertainment, Media & Content, Extended Reality and Web3, Food, Nutrition & Health, Future of Work, Innovative World Technologies, Smart Cities, Transportation & Logistics and Student Startup.

Asclepii will present among four other companies in the Student Startup category on March 10.

For more information, contact Colin McEwen at colin.mcewen@case.edu.