BioLattice adds a $20k win to its growing list of pitch competition victories

BioLattice Ophthalmics founder Amelia Zellander is riding a wave of wins, landing the top prize in a local pitch competition for the second time this year. 

Zellander’s tissue engineering company BioLattice won first place at the Philly regional Startup World Cup pitch competition on Wednesday, walking away with $20,000 and a spot at the global Startup World Cup in San Francisco this fall. 

Like many life sciences startups, BioLattice isn’t an overnight success. Zellander has slowly been building momentum for her company over the last eight years, largely through local pitch competitions, which provide both an infusion of much-needed cash and a forum to meet potential investors. That’s especially valuable for biotech companies, which tend to require more money and resources to get off the ground. 

“These amounts of money make a difference, and also it takes a lot of small touches to build your network with fundraising, and this is a part of that,” Zellander told Technical.ly. “It encourages us to keep doing what we know we have to do, because it’s such a marathon.” 

BioLattice is developing a biomaterial called CorneaClear to repair and transplant the front layer of the eye. The startup’s first major funding came from winning first prize at a competition at the Enterprise Center in 2023. Earlier this year, BioLattice took home the grand prize at the BioLabs annual investor pitch day and was accepted into the HiveBio accelerator. 

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