Okami Medical has closed a financing round, raising $45m, to expand its commercial presence and progress clinical programmes focused on improving outcomes for vascular disease patients.
New investor Gilde Healthcare spearheaded the oversubscribed round, with participation from current investors US Venture Partners and Vensana Capital.
This capital will also be used to develop Okami’s devices for peripheral vessel occlusion.
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Okami focuses on vascular embolisation solutions and was established in 2017 by medical device incubator, Inceptus Medical.
In connection with the funding, Inari Medical’s former CEO Drew Hykes has been named Okami CEO and president while Bill Hoffman was appointed as the board chairman.
Hykes said: “I’m honoured to join the Okami team and have been deeply impressed by the clinical performance and versatility of the LOBO vascular occluder across a wide range of anatomies.
“I look forward to working with this talented team to accelerate our commercial expansion, advance our innovation pipeline, and bring this important technology to more physicians and patients.”
Additionally, Okami welcomed general partner Geoff Pardo and Susana Amorim, both from Gilde Healthcare, to its directors’ board.
Pardo said: “We are pleased to partner with Drew again following our success at Inari and to collaborate with a highly experienced syndicate.
“We believe Okami’s LOBO platform has the potential to transform treatment and significantly improve outcomes for patients with serious unmet needs.”
Okami’s LOBO occluder, which uses HDBRAID technology, is designed for peripheral embolisation procedures. This braided technology enables the production of devices with wires less than 20 microns thick, approximately one-quarter the thickness of a human hair.
In 2024, Okami secured $32.5m in a financing round led by Vensana Capital, with participation from US Venture Partners and other industry investors, to advance its vascular occlusion technologies.
