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MEDLUMICS SECURES 34.4 MILLION EUROS IN SERIES B FUNDING
Investment Allows Company to Advance Product and Clinical Development of Atrial Fibrillation Technology
MedLumics, a cardiac device company specializing in optically guided minimally invasive instruments, announced today that it has raised 34.4 million Euros in financing that will be used to help advance the product and clinical development of the company’s AblaView catheter, intended for the treatment of atrial fibrillation (AF) and other arrhythmias. This financing is the largest in the history of medtech in Spain and one of the largest in Europe this year.
Led by Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners (EdRIP), the Series B round included funding from new investors Seroba Life Sciences, Innogest Capital and a strategic investor, as well as from existing investors, Ysios Capital Partners and Caixa Capital Risc. As a consequence, EdRIP’s Olivier Litzka, Seroba’s James Greene as well as Innogest’s Claudio Rumazza will join the board of directors of the company.
Eduardo Margallo, CEO of MedLumics, said, “While we have been actively advancing our lesion assessment technology for the last two years, we are very pleased to see that the significant Series B investment will give MedLumics the means to complete our best-in-class product, conduct a series of international clinical trials to prove its safety and efficacy, and market it to specialist centers. As the company advances and grows into new areas, we will now expand and develop the team internationally.”
Olivier Litzka, Partner at EdRIP, said, “We believe MedLumics’ founders Eduardo Margallo and Jose Rubio have done a world class job in adapting and miniaturizing OCR technology such that it became applicable to an AF catheter. Based on our experience helping develop Endosense’s Tacticath to become the current gold standard in point-by-point ablation, we believe that MedLumics’ AblaView has all the necessary technological features to ultimately transform AF treatment by making the procedure significantly safer, more predictable and more successful.“
AF is the most common type of heart arrhythmia. An estimated 33.5 million people worldwide suffered from AF in 20101, and prevalence of the disease is expected to increase as the number of people over the age of 65 continues to expand2. Although many technologies have emerged over the last several years to improve the catheter ablation treatment of AF, the procedure remains highly complex and in part difficult to predict. Broad registries reveal recurrence rates of up to 60 percent at the one-year follow-up time point. The major widely accepted cause of recurrence after initially successful treatment is pulmonary vein reconnection due to ineffective lesion formation.
MedLumics’ technology addresses exactly that problem with its AblaView catheter: it will provide the clinicians with direct, real-time information on lesion formation in the tissue surrounding the catheter’s radiofrequency electrode during the ablation process. Although AF patients are expected to benefit most from this innovation, AblaView is also expected to improve the accuracy of other arrhythmia ablation procedures. The company is currently completing development of a clinical version of the catheter with 360-degree, real time “view” of the tissue around the catheter tip.
About MedLumics
Founded in 2009, MedLumics is an ISO13485 certified cardiology device company specializing in optically guided medical devices. Its proprietary integrated optics platform technology combines optical and electrical components in a miniature chip, enabling for the first time complex multiview optical probes of the size of a grain of rice and ultra-portable, hand-held OCT systems that produce high-quality real-time images. The systems allow physicians to improve diagnostic and therapeutic procedures through a non-invasive optical evaluation of tissue. For more information, visit www.medlumics.com.
About Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners
Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners is a leading investor in minority investments into privately owned companies. Affiliate of the Edmond de Rothschild Group, the fund management employs 41 employees and has approximately €1.3 billion under management. Its Life Sciences team of nine professionals brings together over 60 years of experience in the Life Science industry and more than 100 years of private equity and venture capital experience. The team has raised more than €450 million through its BioDiscovery franchise and is currently completing the investment of BioDiscovery 4 fund. Since their inception, BioDiscovery Funds have invested in 55 privately held companies, of which 16 have been sold and 16 listed on public financial markets, while 20 are active in the portfolios.
About Seroba Life Sciences
Seroba Life Sciences is a life sciences venture capital firm, focused on investing in breakthrough healthcare technologies that promise to improve lives and make a difference worldwide. Headquartered in Ireland, Seroba works with some of Europe and the world’s best entrepreneurs developing innovative medical devices, diagnostics and therapeutic drugs. Learn more at: www.seroba-lifesciences.com.
About Innogest Capital
Innogest is a venture capital firm founded in 2005 with offices in Turin, Milan and San Francisco. With over €200 million of capital under management, Innogest Capital focuses on promising seed and early stage ventures developing medical devices, diagnostics and digital health and is particularly active in oncology, cardiology and neurology. Learn more at: www.innogest.it.
- Chugh A., et al. Worldwide Epidemiology of Atrial Fibrillation: A Global Burden of Disease 2010 Study.” Circulation. Dec. 17, 2013.
- CDC. https://www.cdc.gov/dhdsp/data_statistics/fact_sheets/fs_atrial_fibrillation.htm. Accessed Jan. 11, 2017.
