Kestra Medical Technologies it raised $196 million in an oversubscribed financing round. The company plans to use the funds to support its modern wearable cardioverter defibrillator (WCD) technology. Its Assure WCD system received FDA approval in 2021.
Andera Partners, Ally Bridge Group, Longitude Capital and Omega Funds co-led the financing. New investors, funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price, Eventide and Gilmartin Capital participated as well. Long-term investors Bain Capital and Endeavour Vision also made significant contributions.
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In conjunction with the financing, Ally Bridge’s Kevin Reilly, Longitude’s Maxwell Bikoff and Omega’s Francesco Draetta joined Kestra’s board.
Kestra designed Assure to provide autonomous detection and defibrillation for ventricular arrhythmias. It can also detect and record other clinically significant arrhythmias that may require clinical intervention. The company says it designed its offering specifically to meet the underserved needs of female cardiac patients as well. It said in a news release that Assure “represents the next generation of cardiac monitoring and defibrillation therapy.”
Assure features four channels of ECG, an advanced algorithm and adaptive patient intelligence. The WCD reduces noise and ensures clear data and insights. It also sends an alert to an emergency medical services (EMS) operator after a defibrillator shock.
“This oversubscribed financing is a validation of the excitement and confidence that new and existing investors have for Kestra and our Assure cardiac recovery system, which has been prescribed to well over 10,000 patients to date. With this funding, our team is ready to aggressively compete and accelerate our commercialization initiatives to transform the WCD market with our clinically proven system,” said Brian Webster, president & CEO of Kestra Medical Technologies.
