Aortyx raises €13.8 million in a Series A led by Ship2B Ventures and Clave Capital to bring its vascular patch to patient

Aortyx, the Barcelona-based medical device scale-up, has closed a €13.8 million Series A funding round. The funds will be used to reach the milestone of the first clinical trials in patients, bringing its product—a bioabsorbable patch that treats aortic tears—closer to market.

The Aortyx team is developing a minimally invasive solution for aortic dissection, essentially a tear in the aortic wall. To this end, they have created a steerable catheter that is inserted through the aorta and deploys a circular patch to seal the tear. They have also developed the patch itself, made from a bioabsorbable material that serves as a scaffold to promote new tissue growth. The founding team consists of four doctors: CEO Jordi Martorell, CTO Noemí Balà, CSO Salvador Borrós, and CMO Vicenç Riambau.

Over 50,000 Europeans suffer from aortic dissections each year, and Aortyx aims to treat at least half of them with its first-generation products. Current alternatives are suboptimal: invasive open-heart surgery, endovascular repair using stents, or drug therapy to lower blood pressure. All three strategies are associated with high short-, medium-, and long-term mortality and morbidity rates—outcomes Aortyx seeks to improve through its minimally invasive approach.

“Aortic dissections kill more people than car accidents. What we aim to offer is an effective, long-lasting, and aorta-friendly option to treat aortic dissection and other aortic diseases.” – Jordi Martorell, co-founder and CEO of Aortyx

The technology has been successfully tested on animal models and cadavers. The goal of this funding round is to begin first-in-human clinical trials within two years. The primary users of the technology will be vascular and cardiothoracic surgeons. The company was co-founded by researchers from the IQS School of Engineering and internationally renowned Head of Vascular Surgery at Hospital Clínic de Barcelona, Dr. Vicenç Riambau, who has not only guided product development but has also promoted the technology at major international conferences and published the initial animal results in peer-reviewed journals.

The round was led by Ship2B Ventures through its BSocial Impact Fund (backed by Banco Sabadell, the European Investment Fund, and AXIS) and Clave Capital, via its Clave Innohealth vehicle (supported by CDTI-Innvierte). Additional participants included Nara Capital, the EIC Fund, CDTI through its SICC Innvierte, angel investors, and a major corporation in the aortic field—one of the world’s top five aortic device manufacturers.

“We support Aortyx because it potentially represents a revolution in cardiovascular medicine. They are developing a solution that is not only disruptive and technically brilliant, but also driven by a clear social mission: to save lives where today there are few options. Led by an exceptional team with a bold vision, they have the potential to forever change how we treat aortic dissections.” – Jordi Ferrer, Investment Director at Ship2B Ventures.

“We are extremely excited to join Aortyx. This is a company born from a vision that will change the paradigm in the treatment of aortic dissections. The technology is the result of years of research at IQS and Hospital Clínic, and they’ve successfully transferred it and advanced the product toward the patient, with the ultimate goal of saving lives.” – Sergio San Agustín, Investment Director at Clave Capital and board member at Aortyx.

Intellectual property resides in both the catheter and deployment system as well as the patch itself. The bioabsorbable patch is manufactured using the electrospinning technique. This is the same concept spiders use to spin webs and allows for the creation of a controlled, viscoelastic, and biocompatible material.