This CEO wants to forge "a new generation of military medicine"
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Jake Adler, the chief executive at Pilgrim. Photo: Courtesy of Pilgrim/via Day One Ventures
Jake Adler devoured science fiction when he was younger. He rocked an iPod Nano on his wrist — what he called an "early Apple Watch" — and wore Neurosity gear in his yearbook photos. Today, he helms Pilgrim, a defense biotechnology startup.
Why it matters: So much mainstream attention is paid to the pointy end of the stick: missiles, drones, bullets. Far less attention is paid to what happens when you get poked by that stick: triage, treatment, recovery.
The intrigue: Pilgrim exited stealth this summer. Adler, 21, told Axios he started the company with "the ambition of creating a new generation of military medicine."
- Central to his thesis is the belief that troops are being sent "into increasingly austere environments without the relevant medical tools or infrastructure in place needed for their own survival."
- "You can't have a force multiplier without the underlying force," he added. "If you can't stop the bleed, if you can't help that warfighter pick up their gun, then it doesn't matter."
Context: Any protracted fight with Russia or China — or both — will produce immense casualties. U.S. military leaders expect the numbers to dwarf those seen in the global war on terror.
Zoom in: Pilgrim has three main offerings:
- Kingsfoil, a hemostatic dressing for wounds
- Voyager, an inhaled countermeasure to chemical threats
- Argus, a chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) surveillance platform
Follow the money: The company, based in Redwood, California, raised a $4.3 million seed round. It's backed by Cantos VC, Thiel Capital, Day One Ventures, Refactor Capital and others.
Friction point: It does not have any active Defense Department contracts.
- But Adler said he's made headway with the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, Defense Health Agency and Joint Program Executive Office for CBRN Defense.
The bottom line: "We're really one of the only companies today that's betting on the human over the machine," Adler said.
- "I think many people have shifted the scales a little bit, and, frankly, we're trying to to be realistic with how conflicts are going to modernize and evolve."
Go deeper: At the Army Research Lab, an augmented-reality peek at future war
