Phantom GI Raises $5M Seed for PercStoma Clinical Work

The patients Phantom GI wants to reach first have already been judged unable to undergo conventional ostomy surgery. That choice puts the burden of the intervention inside the product brief: a way to relieve bowel obstruction has to be usable by people too frail for the operation normally used to create the opening.

The Tel Aviv medical-device startup announced an initial $5M seed closing on October 8, 2026, led by Pitango HealthTech, with RAD Biomed and RUNI Ventures participating. The capital will support development of PercStoma and the first phase of U.S. clinical studies. PercStoma remains investigational, with no regulatory clearance, while Phantom GI works toward an approach that could bring more patients into the conversation about bowel decompression.

Financing a different route to ostomy

Phantom GI was founded in 2025 by CEO Ido Sadan, CMO Dr. Eran Shlomovitz and CSO Dr. Eliahu Bekhor. Its funding announcement describes the $5M as an initial seed closing, leaving the final shape of the round and the company's cumulative capital undisclosed. That distinction keeps the financing connected to the work it actually funds rather than turning a first closing into a finished fundraising story.

Pitango is investing through its HealthTech unit. Partner Dr. Jonathan Glazer, identified on the firm's current team page, frames the opportunity around changing the complexity of ostomy creation and expanding who could receive treatment. RAD Biomed, an Israeli early-stage investor, and RUNI Ventures join a syndicate financing device development and planned clinical evaluation rather than a disclosed commercial rollout.

An ostomy creates an opening through which bowel contents can leave the body. Phantom GI is designing PercStoma to establish that route through the skin using imaging guidance, a fixation device and a proprietary stent. Conventional surgical ostomy involves bringing bowel to the abdominal surface through an incision, generally under general anesthesia. For Phantom GI's initial intended population, being able to tolerate that intervention is the question that comes before choosing a device.

A clinical idea crossing specialties

Shlomovitz's work spans general surgery, medical imaging and therapeutic endoscopy. University Health Network's interventional radiology team lists him among its clinicians, independently supporting the clinical background described by Phantom GI. That combination of specialties supplies a useful way to understand the company: the proposed access route comes from familiarity with tools on both sides of a surgical boundary.

The company's origin account describes a 2023 intervention for a woman with malignant bowel obstruction who was considered inoperable. Shlomovitz used existing interventional equipment under X-ray guidance, with her consent, to decompress her bowel. Phantom GI says she later resumed eating, work and cancer treatment. That is the company's account of an individual procedure that inspired the business, separate from evidence on the PercStoma device now being developed.

Turning such an intervention into a product gives the founders a different assignment. Equipment, technique and patient selection have to be legible to clinicians who were absent from the original case, and the intended procedure has to survive evaluation in a defined patient population. The seed financing supports that translation into a device program. The engineering question extends from gaining access to the bowel to making the whole intervention practical for another clinical team to perform and follow.

Where PercStoma would fit in bowel-obstruction care

The National Cancer Institute's explanation of bowel obstruction describes a blockage that can prevent normal passage through the intestine. Cancer itself, or complications of cancer treatment, can cause the condition. Management depends on the cause, severity and patient's overall health, with options that may include surgery, intestinal stents, decompression and symptom-directed care.

That existing range matters when interpreting Phantom GI's market. Patients considered unable to undergo conventional ostomy surgery may still receive other forms of care; the company's intended contribution is another route to bowel drainage for an initial population facing surgical limits. Relief of an obstruction is also distinct from treating the underlying cancer. Clinical usefulness in this setting has to remain connected to the patient's goals and the consequences of the intervention.

PercStoma is designed around one needle access point, local anesthesia and fluoroscopy. The proposed stent would connect the bowel to the skin so contents could drain into a standard ostomy bag, with a procedure-time target of approximately 20 minutes. Phantom GI also intends simpler, office-based reversal. Both timing and reversal remain design objectives, and the company's own website identifies the device as investigational and uncleared by any regulatory authority.

Designing for the patient who cannot take the standard route

Phantom GI's sequence starts with surgical ineligibility and then looks toward broader ostomy indications. That creates a particular kind of product ambition: the founders are asking how much intervention the same clinical objective requires, with the patient's capacity to tolerate the procedure shaping the answer. Any eventual expansion would need evidence appropriate to the population being considered, rather than a straight extrapolation from the most urgent initial cases.

The public announcement identifies development and the first phase of U.S. clinical studies as uses of the financing. It does not provide a confirmed enrollment calendar, a clearance timetable or commercial outcome data. For operators following the company, those details will determine how the work moves from a proposed access technique to something that clinicians can evaluate within established care pathways.

The commercial consequence is tied closely to the clinical one. A product meant for people ruled out for a standard operation has to be understood by the teams making that eligibility decision, as well as those responsible for the intervention and follow-up. Sadan, Shlomovitz and Bekhor are now financing a route through those connected decisions, keeping the patients who inspired the device inside the development process as PercStoma approaches clinical evaluation.