CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Lantos Technologies, a company developing the world’s first intra-aural 3D scanner, today announced the appointment of Jeffrey C. Leathe as Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Company’s Board of Directors. The founding CEO of Lantos, Shahid Azim, becomes Senior Vice President, New Market Development, primarily focusing on consumer applications.
The company also announced the closing of a $4.1 million Series B financing by existing investors Catalyst Health Ventures, Excel Venture Management and Mass Medical Angels. Excel Venture Management led the round. The funding will support the continued development of the world’s first real-time 3D ear canal scanning technology which will enable custom fit audio devices such as hearing aids, earphones and noise-canceling devices. The novel technology provides fast, accurate and minimally invasive digital mapping of the human ear canal.
“We are delighted to have Jeff join the Lantos team at such an exciting time in the Company’s development,” said Darshana Zaveri, Partner, Catalyst Health Ventures. “Jeff brings to Lantos tremendous knowledge and experience in building successful companies and is uniquely qualified to lead Lantos as it prepares to commercialize its proprietary technology.”
Before joining Lantos, Mr. Leathe was Chairman and CEO of Biocius Life Sciences, a privately held instrument and contract research organization focused on drug discovery research and clinical diagnostic testing. Prior to Biocius, Jeff was a senior executive at BioTrove, a privately held genomics products company. From 1990-2003, Jeff was the EVP of Apogent Technologies, a $1.2 billion public company which manufactured products for life science research and clinical diagnostics.
“Jeff is a distinguished executive in the life sciences field and Lantos is his third venture backed company founded on MIT technology,” noted Rick Blume, Managing Director at Excel Venture Management. “We are excited to work with Jeff again as he and the MIT team at Lantos bring this transformative technology to the audiology market.”
“I am excited to be joining the Lantos team as the company prepares for clinical trials and regulatory filings in advance of its first product launch expected in 2012,” commented Jeff Leathe. “Intra-aural scanning is seen as the holy grail of audiology and with the Lantos technology, team and additional funding, this dream is becoming closer to reality for the industry.”
About Lantos Technologies
Lantos Technologies is developing the world’s first intra-aural 3D scanner providing fast, highly accurate and minimally invasive mapping of the human ear canal. Discovered and developed in the lab of MIT professor Douglas Hart, this unique imaging technology presents the opportunity to significantly enhance consumers’ experience with custom ear devices. In addition, the first ever image capture of dynamic ear canal data is expected to drive product innovation in the audiology field for years to come. www.lantostechnologies.com