MEDICAL ALLEY, Minn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Minnesota medical device startup Cryosa completed its Series A-2 funding, raising $8.25 million to further develop its breakthrough therapies for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA).
The round was led by life sciences firm, Santé Ventures, and HOYA Corporation (“HOYA”), with additional institutional and individual investors. This latest funding round will be used to engage in first-in-human clinical trials. The company has completed extensive pre-clinical testing, evaluating safety and efficacy.
“Current surgical treatments for obstructive sleep apnea are invasive and do not focus on curing the root cause of the disorder,” said Cryosa founder Dr. Donald Gonzales. “Cryosa was founded to develop minimally invasive, permanent therapies for OSA.”
OSA impacts approximately 22 million Americans, disrupting sleep and potentially leading to other serious medical conditions if undiagnosed and untreated.
“There is a large, unmet medical need for a minimally invasive obstructive sleep apnea therapy,” said Dr. James Eadie, Partner at Santé Ventures and Cryosa board member. “Cryosa’s approach is elegant and backed by a strong team of medical device entrepreneurs and engineers.”
“The market for OSA therapies is substantial and continues to grow,” said Rubal Bedi, Global Head and Vice President of Corporate Venture Capital at HOYA. “Cryosa is well-positioned to help the needs of patients living with this sleep disorder.”
Cryosa was founded in 2018 by Gonzales, who also serves as the company’s chief medical officer (CMO). Prior to Cryosa, Gonzales was CMO for Entellus Medical, which was acquired by Stryker in 2018, and founded several other companies in the ear, nose and throat space including Spirox Medical and ENTrigue Surgical.
Cryosa’s president and CEO is Mark Christopherson, who brings more than 25 years of experience in the medical device industry to the company. He was a co-founding executive of Inspire Medical and led NxThera's research and development during commercialization and pivotal trials, prior to the company’s acquisition by Boston Scientific in 2018.
Obstructive sleep apnea occurs when the upper airway soft tissue collapses. Individuals with this sleep disorder may stop breathing for more than 10 seconds, experience lower oxygen saturation and be roused from sleep up to hundreds of times per night.
“Recent research shows a connection between adipose/fat tissue of the upper airway and the severity of OSA,” Christopherson said. “By focusing on methods and treatments to selectively reduce adipose tissue, we believe we can help reduce instances of OSA and help people sleep better.”
About Cryosa
Cryosa is a medical device company focused on developing breakthrough, minimally invasive and permanent therapies for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Driven by an experienced medical device team of successful startup entrepreneurs and large med-tech engineers, the company is based in Medical Alley, Minnesota. For more information, visit www.cryosa.com.
About Santé Ventures
Founded in 2006, Santé Ventures is a specialized healthcare and life sciences investment firm with over a half-billion dollars in capital under management. The Firm invests in early-stage companies developing innovative new medical technologies, biotechnologies and digitally-enabled healthcare services. Since inception, the Firm has made over 30 portfolio investments, including Claret Medical (Boston Scientific), TVA Medical (Becton Dickinson), Millipede Medical (Boston Scientific), Molecular Templates (MTEM), AbVitro (Celgene) and Explorys (IBM Corp). Santé invests nationally and is headquartered in Austin, Texas, with additional offices in Houston. For more information, please visit www.santeventures.com.
About HOYA
Founded in 1941 in Tokyo, Japan, HOYA Corporation is a global technology and med-tech company and a leading supplier of innovative high-tech and medical products. HOYA’s divisions and business units research and develop products utilized in the healthcare and information technology fields.
In the healthcare field, we provide medical device products such as eyeglasses, medical endoscopes, contact and intraocular lenses, orthopedic implants, surgical/therapeutic devices and medical device reprocessing and disinfection solutions. In the information technology field, we provide products such as optical lenses, photomasks and blanks used in the manufacturing process for semiconductor and LCD/OLED devices, text to speech, human resources and other software solutions and critical components for the mass memory and cloud storage industries. With over 150 offices and subsidiaries worldwide, HOYA currently employs a multinational workforce of 37,000 people. For more information, please visit http://www.hoya.com.
