The Venture Codex

Participated · Series D · Mar 2019

Micro Interventional Devices (MID) designs, develops and commercializes proprietary percutaneous technologies focused on structural heart disease. Its lead technology is MIA™ (Minimally Invasive Annuloplasty), intended for percutaneous treatment of tricuspid and mitral regurgitation. The company is completing the STTAR (Study of Transcatheter Tricuspid Annular Repair) clinical trial to evaluate MIA’s safety and efficacy. MID announced a strategic alliance with Oscor to further develop and commercialize solutions for structural heart disease. Under that alliance MID acquired a non-exclusive worldwide license to Oscor’s patented catheter technology while Oscor received exclusive manufacturing rights to MID’s MIA devices. The company is using the recent financing to complete its ongoing clinical study and advance commercialization efforts. Micro Interventional Devices (MID) is an emerging cardiovascular medical device company based in Bethlehem, PA, founded in May 2010. Its core product, Permaseal, is described as the first transapical access device to enable true "self-sealing," sutureless cardiac access and closure. Permaseal is designed to enable a range of structural heart repair procedures including transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) and mitral valve replacement and repair. MID is also developing percutaneous transapical and large bore femoral access and closure devices using proprietary soft-tissue anchoring technology that enables off-pump procedures. Financially, MID has secured $3.5M of an expected $5M Series B financing. The company intends to use the funding to advance Permaseal development, complete the STASIS clinical study, pursue CE Mark approval, and support ongoing R&D. Micro Interventional Devices is developing solutions for a wide range of structural heart repair procedures. The company is working on a new minimally invasive structural heart repair product called Permaseal™ and intends to use recent funding to develop and begin commercializing it. Micro Interventional Devices received a $100k loan from the Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania. The company was founded in 2010 and is led by CEO Michael P. Whitman and CSO Willard Hennemann, PhD. Its development work targets procedures including TAVI, transcatheter mitral valve replacement, LVAD placement, mitral valve repair, valvuloplasty, aortic arch repair, ASD/VSD closure, left atrial appendage closure, and arrhythmia ablation. Micro Interventional Devices develops Permaseal, a sutureless closure device that uses soft tissue anchors and biocompatible elastomers to form a web structure around myocardial access sites and provide hemostatic left-ventricle access during minimally invasive cardiac procedures. The device is applied before transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) and constricts around the ventricular opening after guidewire extraction; the company is also pursuing use in transcatheter mitral valve replacement and mitral valve repair. The company was launched in 2010 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and is pursuing CE-mark clinical evaluation (the STASIS study) and commercialization in Europe. A 40-person European STASIS trial scheduled for Q3 will evaluate safety and performance for left ventricular transapical access and closure, with procedure time as a secondary endpoint and top-line results expected in Q4. Financially, Micro Interventional Devices secured a $500,000 bridge financing earlier this year (with Life Sciences Greenhouse of Central Pennsylvania contributing) and counts Battelle Ventures, New Hope Ventures and Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania among its investors. The company is commencing a Series B in September seeking $5–8 million to complete CE mark approval and support European commercialization. Micro Interventional Devices (MID) is an early-stage cardiovascular medical device company founded in May 2010 and located in Bethlehem, PA. MID's initial product offering is Permaseal, a patent-pending minimally invasive access and wound-closure device designed to move with the beating heart while keeping wound edges closed. Permaseal enables sutureless healing, and the company describes it as cost- and time-efficient for structural heart repair procedures. The device provides a biocompatible implant affixed to the apex of the heart to create a transmyocardial access site for procedures such as TAVI, transcatheter mitral valve replacement, mitral valve repair, LVAD placement, ASD/VSD closure, left atrial appendage closure and arrhythmia ablation. MID says its proprietary soft-tissue anchoring and delivery-device technology enables off-pump procedures and aims for Permaseal to become a new standard of care. Michael Whitman is named as President & CEO in the announcement.

Led · Series A · Jul 2013

TB Biosciences is developing an accurate, easy-to-use, affordable rapid point-of-care test intended to replace the unreliable sputum smear for diagnosing active tuberculosis. The company uses an array of patented peptides, developed and exclusively licensed from NYU School of Medicine, derived from the tuberculosis genome to detect antibodies in patients. Preliminary performance data using samples from endemic countries yielded sensitivity greater than 90%, and the test is designed to detect active TB in children, adults and people co‑infected with HIV. The technology was developed over the past 20 years at NYU School of Medicine under Suman Laal, Ph.D., and the company was founded in June 2013. Product development efforts will occur in Bethlehem, Pa., and the company plans clinical trials to validate and optimize the test. Leadership includes CEO and co‑founder Sam Niedbala, who previously helped commercialize rapid infectious disease tests at OraSure Technologies.

Participated · Equity · Apr 2013

BA Insight, based in New York, develops integrated search technologies to help organizations leverage Microsoft SharePoint across the enterprise. Its core products, Longitude Search and Longitude Connector, extend Microsoft's enterprise search across CRM, ERP, ECM, messaging, and collaboration systems. The platform delivers rich document preview and assembly tools that enable knowledge workers to act on search results more quickly and effectively. Customers include companies across industries such as legal, oil and gas, and pharmaceutical/life sciences. The company is led by CEO Gary Traynor, CTO Jeff Fried, and SVP of Sales and Marketing William Zuckermann. In March 2013 BA Insight raised $4.5M in funding and intends to use the capital to continue to grow. BA-Insight is an enterprise search software company focused on Microsoft-based information access and SharePoint search. The company’s flagship product, Longitude, lets users find and analyze relevant information regardless of format or where the data resides. BA-Insight secured $6M in private equity financing to further develop and extend its suite of enterprise search products for SharePoint Search. The company will use the capital to expand its marketing efforts and grow its sales and support services organizations. BA-Insight is based in White Plains, NY.

Led · Equity · Oct 2012

FSAstore.com is an NYC-based e-commerce site exclusively stocking Flexible Spending Account (FSA) eligible products and services. Founded and led by president Jeremy Miller, the site offers more than 6,000 healthcare products and hundreds of services purchasable with tax-free FSA dollars. The company partners directly with FSA administrators (TPAs) to make a wide range of health products, tools, and services available to FSA holders. FSAstore.com closed its second financing of over $2 million led by Originate Ventures, with participation from existing investors Point Judith Capital, Columbia Business School Lang Fund, and additional angel investors. The company intends to use the capital to accelerate sales, marketing and development initiatives. FSAStore.com is a New York-based e-commerce site exclusively stocked with Flexible Spending Account (FSA) eligible products and services. Led by founder and president Jeremy Miller, the site accepts all FSA debit and major credit cards and offers 24/7 customer service. The company closed an $800K Series A financing to support growth. It intends to use the funds to improve the site and expand sales and marketing efforts aimed at developing the company’s fast-growing Third Party Administrator (TPA) partnership programs. The Series A was led by Point Judith Capital with participation from Columbia Business School Lang Fund, Opal Moon, LLC and other angel investors.

Led · Equity · Nov 2011

ThermalTherapeutic Systems makes the VeraTherm, a 26‑pound portable hyperthermic perfusion device cleared by the U.S. FDA in March 2010 that pumps heated or unheated fluid into patients' abdomens or chest cavities. Hyperthermic perfusion is sometimes used in treating cancer, and the company positions the device for that unmet clinical need. The company is Pittsburgh‑based and has hired Gardiner Smith as its new CEO to lead commercialization. ThermalTherapeutic is in the midst of raising a Series B to fund commercial launch and plans to begin selling the device in international markets. A Securities and Exchange Commission filing shows the company targeted $2 million for the Series B. The firm has already raised $800,000 toward that round from existing investors, and management says the ultimate equity raise will depend on how well the device sells. ThermalTherapeutic Systems is building a portable, 29-pound perfusion device roughly a foot high, a foot deep and a foot-and-a-half tall that delivers fluids into the abdomen and chest cavity. The device can handle a variety of heated and unheated solutions and is intended in part to deliver chemotherapy drugs to bathe tissue and shorten treatment times. The company submitted its application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in July and says the recent financing will help bring the product to market. In August it closed on $750,000 in capital, and it has now raised an additional $2.75 million. The round was presented as a catalyst to launch the technology. CEO Raymond Vennare previously ran a multimedia software business and served as an executive at ImmunoSite and TissueInformatics (the latter was acquired by BioImagene in 2006).