MACRO FUNDED
MicroVention’s $10M Funding Brings Total Raised to $53M
By VITA REED
MicroVention Inc., an Aliso Viejo-based startup medical device maker, has nabbed $10 million in an extension of its fourth round of venture funding.
The new investment brings MicroVention’s total money raised to about $53 million since its 1997 founding.
Last summer the company attracted $18.9 million in the initial part of its fourth round.
All of the investors in the latest round have invested in MicroVention before.
They include the Irvine office of Woodside-based Crosspoint Venture Partners, Menlo Park’s U.S. Venture Partners, De Novo Ventures and Delphi Ventures, Palo Alto’s Advanced Technology Ventures and Asset Management Co. and the venture arm of St. Louis’ A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc.
The device maker’s latest financing “provides the necessary working capital to fuel the continued growth of MicroVention,” Chief Executive Michael Kleine said.
The company plans to use the new money to boost its sales, marketing and development efforts for devices that treat endovascular aneurysms.
MicroVention is developing minimally invasive, catheter-based products targeting cerebral aneurysms, which occur when a blood vessel wall within the brain balloons.
The devices, called MicroPlex Coil Systems, use multiple platinum coils in the vascular system of the brain. The process stops blood flow to the aneurysm, reducing the chance for rupture.
Cerebral aneurysms, if left untreated, could weaken until they rupture and bleed into the brain.
MicroVention estimates that 2% to 5% of Americans have cerebral aneurysms, most of which go undetected.
About 150,000 patients worldwide are treated for the condition, it said.
The company said it’s aiming at a near-term potential market of $500 million for endovascular devices.
Rivals include Boston Scientific Corp. of Natick, Mass., which holds some 90% of the market.
MicroVention also is developing HydroCoil, a next-generation embolization, or blocking, device to treat aneurysms. The company has Food and Drug Administration and European Union clearance for its HydroCoil and MicroPlex devices.
The device maker said that about 600 patients have been treated with its HydroCoil device, including more than 100 in a clinical study looking at the device’s effectiveness in treating endovascular aneurysm obstructions.
The company is positioning HydroCoil as “a viable and frequently preferable treatment option compared to traditional surgical approaches and existing endovascular coil embolization technology,” Kleine said.
