24 January 2025
Article

A ‘wildcard’ sparked their growth journey: “It was like UEFA Euro 1992”

Exo360 took part in an acceleration program at DTU Science Park on a last-minute opening. Several years later, the medtech startup was invited back and went on to close a significant funding round.

Exo360 took part in an acceleration program at DTU Science Park on a last-minute opening. Several years later, the medtech startup was invited back and went on to close a significant funding round.

Most startup success stories are built on complex and persistent effort.

No one knows this better than PhD Mads Terndrup. As an orthopaedic surgeon, he spent several years witnessing how plaster casting, widely used for treating fractures, often proved less than optimal.

“The main problem with traditional plaster is that it does not adjust to the body’s natural changes during healing. When the swelling goes down, the cast becomes loose, which leads to a greater risk of surgery,” he explains.

In 2021, he and co-founder Michael Rosenfeldt established the medtech startup EXO360 to address this problem. But at the time, they had neither the technology nor a business plan ready.

That is why the founders applied for a chance to pitch at DTU Science Park’s Danish Tech Challenge.

“We had no fully developed technology, so we were rejected from participating at first. But then I wrote to DTU Science Park saying that if someone dropped out, it could be just like UEFA Euro 1992, where we ended up winning it all. A week later, they called; a spot had opened,” recalls Mads Terndrup with a smile.

Danish Tech Challenge

  • Danish Tech Challenge is a five-month intensive program that offers participants access to guidance from advisors and mentors, a prototype workshop, investors, and a grand prize of DKK 500,000 sponsored by Jyske Bank.
  • It was launched in 2014 as a development program aimed at technological hardware entrepreneurs looking to bring new physical products to market.
  • Over 100 hardware startups apply annually, and 15 are selected to join the program.
  • DTU Science Park runs the program with support from Jyske Bank.

Raised capital in a tough market

After a successful period of participating in the program, the founders began developing a solution using elastomeric lattice metamaterials that adapt to swelling, provide continuous support, and help prevent the need for surgery.

Raising the capital to fund their growth, however, proved problematic, says Mads Terndrup:

“The market was extremely challenging in 2023. We’d been trying to secure funding for around nine months without success, and it felt like capital was not flowing as freely to startups as it once had.”

During that same period, an invitation to the Medtech Investor Network event landed in EXO360’s inbox. DTU Science Park hosts the event annually, which brings together relevant venture capital funds and angel investors from the health sector.

This gave EXO360 the chance to present their project:

“We got in, pitched, and a couple of weeks later, we closed our funding round with four investors.”

Mads Terndrup.
Co-founder, Exo360.

A last-minute opening paved the way for success

The investment—provided by three different angel investors—significantly accelerated EXO360’s growth journey.

Today, the founders are preparing to launch the Exo360 Wrist solution, tailored specifically to wrist fractures. Recent studies show that 48% of fracture treatments shift in the cast, and in the EU alone, around 340,000 wrist surgeries are performed annually because of fractures that move in plaster.

Many of these could be avoided using the Danish solution, says Mads Terndrup:

“EXO360 simply clips on like a Kinder Surprise, with the metamaterial inside the shell applying stable pressure—regardless of whether swelling increases or decreases.”

The founders plan to roll out the solution to 10 hospitals across Northern Europe in 2025, and many agreements are already in place. But their ambitions go well beyond this initial milestone:

“We hope to become the new gold standard in trauma treatment within 10 years. I’m motivated by seeing the first patient with an EXO360 applied and immediately feel their pain subside”.