CorWave reported that it has raised $40M from returning investors and three new investors. The company is developing an implantable heart pump (Left Ventricular Assist Device, LVAD) based on a breakthrough technology: the wave membrane pump. These new funds will enable CorWave to finalize development of its initial product, expand a manufacturing infrastructure, complete regulatory testing required to conduct human implants, and start its human clinical trials.
Bpifrance, Novo Holdings, Seventure, Sofinnova Partners and Ysios Capital, existing shareholders of CorWave who are leading investors in life sciences, significantly increased their stake in the company. CorWave is the first investment of the $4.4 billion EIC Fund, financed by the European Commission and one of the largest VC funds in Europe. Two new shareholders join the returning investors and EIC Fund: Financière Arbevel and the Singaporean family office M&L Healthcare.
“CorWave has built an international team of excellence that has achieved critical R&D milestones. The company is now in a very good position to seize a multi-billion-dollar market opportunity. On behalf of the existing investors, I am very excited to continue to support CorWave in this new phase of growth,” said Gérard Hascoët, Chairman of the Board of Directors of CorWave and Venture Partner at Sofinnova Partners.
“This $40 million round gives us the means to achieve our ambitions. We are already at work to build our manufacturing and clinical teams. This is the result of the perseverance of the ‘CorWavers’ who are working tirelessly to change the lives of heart failure patients. They have developed the most advanced circulatory support system in the world. I would also like to acknowledge the work of Zina Hamoumi, our CFO, who has been instrumental in this transaction. We are very pleased with the renewed support of leading healthcare funds and the arrival of new shareholders, including EIC Fund, which is making its first equity investment,” added Louis de Lillers, CEO of CorWave.
Dr. Nader Moazami, MD, Chief of the Division of Heart & Lung Transplantation & Mechanical Circulatory Support at New York University (NYU) Langone Health, commented: “CorWave’s unique technology offers the potential to significantly improve the outcomes achievable with mechanical circulatory support for the treatment of end-stage heart failure.”
About CorWave
CorWave is a French company developing innovative cardiac assist devices. Its technology stands out from other LVADs (left ventricular assist devices) currently on the market due to its physiologic design, which is enabled by its disruptive wave membrane. The membrane is able to generate a natural pulse, replicating the blood flow and pressure characteristics of the patient’s native heart. CorWave’s novel membrane pump technology is being developed to reduce complications associated with current devices and improve the care of patients with heart failure. CorWave was incorporated in 2012 by the startup studio MD Start and is funded by well-known investors, including Bpifrance, Novo Holdings, Seventure, Sofinnova Partners, and Ysios. The company had secured over 55 million dollars of equity and non-dilutive funding prior to its Series C round and employs more than 50 people.
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