Israeli Startup Phantom GI Raises $5 Million Seed for Minimally Invasive Ostomy

Traditional ostomy surgery requires an abdominal incision, general anesthesia, and a significant recovery period. The issue is that many patients suffering from malignant bowel obstruction are in a complex medical condition that simply does not allow them to undergo such an invasive procedure. The Israeli startup Phantom GI is developing PercStoma, a device that enables the creation of an ostomy via a minimally invasive and rapid procedure lasting only about 20 minutes.

Instead of an operating room, access to the intestine is achieved through a single skin puncture under X-ray fluoroscopy and local anesthesia. After fixation, a dedicated stent is placed for drainage into a standard ostomy bag. This technology was born in the field rather than in laboratories. In 2023, Dr. Eran Shlomovitz treated a critical patient who could not undergo surgery. Using existing equipment, he improvised a method that saved her life and allowed her to return to her routine and oncological treatment.

Following this success, he joined Dr. Ido Sadan and Dr. Eliyahu Bakhor to found the company in 2025. Sadan, serving as CEO, explained that they established Phantom GI with the notion that creating an ostomy should not necessarily require major surgery. Dr. Bakhor, the Chief Scientist, added that a minimally invasive approach can significantly expand treatment options for tens of thousands of patients in the US annually. The company aims to also simplify ostomy closure in the future, turning it into a short outpatient procedure without additional surgery.

To bring the product to the clinical trial stage in the US, the company announced a $5 million Seed funding round led by Pitango HealthTech, with participation from RAD Biomed and RUNI Ventures. Dr. Yonatan Glazer from Pitango noted that the company is challenging a surgical paradigm that has remained almost unchanged for decades.