Envoy Medical develops the Esteem, the first fully implantable device to treat hearing loss in the United States, which the FDA approved in March. The Esteem system is entirely in the ear and consists of a sensor, a sound processor (a custom chip) and a driver that transmits mechanical vibrations to the cochlea. About 90–100 surgeons are training to implant the device, with ten ready to perform the procedure in the next month. The company reports roughly 80 patients have signed up for the $30,000 out-of-pocket procedure and another 400 have expressed serious interest. Traffic to the Esteem website jumped to about 2,800 hits a day (from 500–1,000), prompting Envoy to hire extra sales staff. Envoy projects that selling 110 procedures per month would generate positive cash flow by March 2011. The company has an ongoing $250,000-per-month advertising deal with Rush Limbaugh, which has driven much of the recent consumer interest.

Total raised

$16M

Funding rounds

1

Latest round

Equity

Latest activity

Oct 2010