Medlumics, which develops Ablaview®, a unique RF irrigated ablation catheter system that merges photonics and miniaturized optics to guide device placement and directly assess the ablation lesions in real time, announces today the closing of a €14 million Series E financing, co-led by Asabys Partners (through the fund Sabadell Asabys Health Innovation Investments), VI Partners and CDTI Innvierte, with the participation from historical investors Andera Partners, Caixa Capital Risc and Innogest Capital. Several of the investors joining this round were investors in Endosense, a company in the same space acquired by Abbott (St. Jude Medical) in 2013 for more than USD 300 million.
Medlumics was founded in Madrid in 2009 and is led by James Greene (CEO) who has long-term experience in the industry both as a serial entrepreneur in the MedTech industry and as an executive in global medical device players.
AblaView® is the first imaging system to assess the treatment of Atrial Fibrillation by ablation, allowing the operator to directly assess both the positioning of the ablation catheter on the myocardium and the continuity and transmurality of the ablation.
The cardiac Ablation catheter market was $3.9b in 2019, with only 4,4% of people diagnosed being treated using ablation technology. A limiting factor for adoption of the ablation technique remains the high rate of recurrence due to lack of lesion transmurality (ablation of the myocardium in all its depth) and lack of lesion continuity, leaving gaps of untreated tissues. The AblaView® technology tackles this problem, guiding practitioners and confirming therapy success in real time. Ablaview® is fully compatible with the RF ablation catheters that are already on the market.
The financing will allow Medlumics to complete the preclinical development of its technology and obtain first in human clinical data.
“Medlumics optically guided ablation technology provides electrophysiologists direct information without surrogates to make real time decisions critical for successful ablation resulting in reducing AF recurrence rate. Recent preclinical studies were very successful and demonstrated AblaView®’s ability to directly assess catheter to tissue contact, stability with high sensitivity, and continuous progression of the ablation of the tissue. Using photonics, clinicians will soon directly assess lesion progression and continuity in real time and subsequently locate and ablate gaps with precision. I thank new and existing investors for the trust and support in our company as we will be able to transition from preclinical feasibility to clinical validation in the near future”, commented James Greene, CEO of Medlumics SL.
Josep Ll. Sanfeliu, Managing Partner at Asabys Partners, said: “We have been following Medlumics for years. We were immediately excited by the last developments of the company and are thrilled to collaborate with a very experienced team at the maturation of a technology that could impact the life of hundreds of thousands of patients worldwide”.
Diego Braguglia, Managing Partner at VI Partners, stated: “Medlumics AblaView® will promote RF ablation to the next level, providing real time information on the quality of the ablations. This represents a quantum leap in AF treatment. Patients outcome will be dramatically impacted by the ability of clinicians to follow on real time the progression of the ablations and its quality. We are very honoured and excited to be part of this endeavour.”
About Medlumics
Medlumics SL, founded in Madrid in 2009, is a medical device company focused on the design and development of an optically guided radiofrequency ablation system for the treatment of Atrial fibrillation. Its flagship product, AblaView®, allows the operator to directly assess both the positioning of the ablation catheter on the myocardium and the continuity and transmurality of the ablation. Medlumics Ireland Ltd. is a subsidiary and IDA company developing automated optical sensor and packaging processes for high volume manufacture. www.medlumics.com
About Asabys Partners
Asabys Partners is a venture capital manager firm specialized in the healthcare sector, founded by Josep Ll. Sanfeliu and Clara Campàs and participated by Alantra. Its first investment vehicle, Sabadell Asabys Health Innovation Investments SCR, SA, was launched in 2019 and is backed by the Banc Sabadell as reference investor. The fund has a target size of more than €80M and invests in healthcare companies across three verticals: medtech, digital therapeutics and biotech, that have highly innovative and disruptive technologies. The fund’s investment in the company benefits from the financial backing of the European Union under the European Fund for Strategic Investments (“EFSI”) set up under the Investment Plan for Europe. The purpose of EFSI is to help support financing and implementing productive investments in the European Union and to ensure increased access to financing. www.asabys.com
About VI Partners
VI Partners is Swiss venture capital advisor. Its partners have been working together since 2002. Its mission is to build bridges between entrepreneurs’ dreams and successful companies and enable savvy investors to partner with the best start-up companies. VI Partners has been advising Venture Incubator fund since 2002 and its new VI Partners Swiss Innovation Fund since 2020. The managing partners have also been active contributors to the entrepreneurial scene in Switzerland and Europe since the 90s. VI Partners invested over CHF 230m in more than 50 companies since inception. www.vipartners.ch
About CDTI
CDTI is the body from the General State Administration that supports knowledge-based innovation, advising and offering public aid for innovation through subsidies or partially reimbursable aids. CDTI also internationalizes the R&D and innovation business projects of Spanish companies and entities and manages Spanish participation in international R&D organizations, such as Horizonte2020 and Eureka, as well as in the Science and Space industries. Additionally, through the Innvierte Economía Sostenible initiative, it supports and facilitates the capitalization of technology companies. www.cdti.es
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