InVera Medical Press Release,
Wednesday 28th October 2020
InVera Medical™ (formerly known as Venari Medical), an innovative medical device company based in Galway (Ireland), recently raised $5.3 million (€4.5 million) in seed equity funding to accelerate the development of its ground-breaking InVera™ device for the treatment of chronic venous disease. The company is a National University of Ireland, Galway spin-out, through the BioInnovate Ireland programme.
The investment round was led by Nipro Corporation, a world-leading medical product manufacturer based in Osaka, Japan. The Western Development Commission and Enterprise Ireland also contributed to the investment, in addition to international medical device experts and vascular surgeons.
Chronic venous disease (CVD) affects up to 30% of adults across the globe resulting in a significant deterioration in quality of life for sufferers, especially those with advanced skin breakdown known as venous leg ulcers. The market opportunity of CVD treatment is over $2 billion annually in the US & EU. Recent high-quality clinical evidence, supporting the benefits of acute intervention to improve overall healing of venous leg ulcers, has the potential to add over $1.5 billion to this opportunity. CVD management places a huge burden on healthcare systems amounting to $33 billion (€28 billion) per year in the US and EU alone, representing 2.5% of total healthcare expenditure.
InVera CEO and co-founder Stephen Cox commented “This seed investment accelerates a huge opportunity to improve the quality of life of sufferers of chronic venous disease (CVD) across the globe. This funding enables the clinical validation of our InVera™ medical device, which we are confident will offer patients a less invasive and highly effective office-based treatment that is also an intuitive procedure for physicians treating CVD. We believe that widespread adoption of the InVera™ device has significant cost saving potential for healthcare systems.”
Commenting on their investment, Toshiaki Masuda, Managing Director at Nipro Corporation said “We are very excited to invest in InVera Medical™. Their focus on Chronic Venous Disease is an area of great patient need due to its high prevalence internationally and significant impact on quality of life. This less invasive solution under development will offer physicians an entirely new treatment option for all CVD patients. The InVera Medical™ team have impressed us greatly with this cutting-edge approach to venous disease treatment, from their novel pre-clinical research in vein biology, to collaborations with internationally recognised experts in venous disease treatment.”
Tomás Ó Síocháin, CEO, Western Development Commission commented “This technology will improve the lives of a huge number of people, and that has been the primary focus of Stephen Cox and the team at InVera since the outset. Equally, however, this investment, underlines the importance of supporting innovation driven enterprises, building on the success of the existing medtech ecosystem in Ireland’s western region.”
Manager of Enterprise Ireland’s High Potential Start-Ups Division, Jennifer Melia said “This significant investment is as a result of InVera co-founders Stephen, Sean and Nigel’s commitment to strengthening treatment practices in healthcare and will allow them to transition to the next stage in business for InVera. As BioInnovate Ireland fellows, the InVera team are an example of how this collaborative programme funded by Enterprise Ireland is connecting experts and producing the next generation of healthcare entrepreneurs focused on improving lives. Their break-through, innovative InVera™ device has not just the potential to transform lives the world over but to also reduce cost for healthcare systems treating chronic venous disease.
InVera has been on Enterprise Ireland’s radar since it was first established and was one of 10 ambitious start-ups chosen to exhibit at Enterprise Ireland Big Ideas showcase last year having previously availed of the Commercialisation Fund. We are so pleased to support its development as the business set their sights on new global markets and we are excited to see what is next.”
About InVera Medical™
Established in 2018, InVera Medical™ (formerly known as Venari Medical) has since developed a strong intellectual property position by perfecting a purely mechanical endovascular approach for the treatment of venous disease. Utilising the body’s natural healing mechanism, the InVera™ novel catheter system achieves effective mechanical vein disruption at a cellular level to treat symptoms. This allows for a less invasive and more effective treatment for all CVD patients, but critically patients suffering from venous leg ulcers will benefit most. InVera expects to create 20 new jobs in both senior management and technical, quality and regulatory roles over the next 3 years as a result of this investment.
Photo: Martina Regan
InVera Medical™ was founded by Stephen Cox MBA (CEO), Sean Cummins (CTO) and Dr. Nigel Phelan (Chief Medical Officer). InVera Medical’s mission focus is on innovation of unparalleled safe, effective, patient-centred medical devices that improve quality of life for those with debilitating vascular disease. InVera Medical is a spin-out from the BioInnovate Ireland fellowship programme for medical device innovation at the National University of Ireland, Galway (NUIG) which is sponsored by Enterprise Ireland. See more at https://inveramedical.com/.
Nipro Corporation is a world-leading manufacturer of Renal, Medical-Surgical and Interventional Radiology products. Nipro Corporation are committed to delivering innovative, high quality and value-added solutions to improve patient care. This fundamental objective leads Nipro Corporation to develop cutting-edge products that are not only safe for the medical provider but are manufactured to alleviate the discomfort of the patient. Established in 1954, Nipro Corporation employs more than 33,000 team members and specializes in medical, pharmaceutical, and glass products. See more at https://www.nipro.co.jp/en/.
Western Development Commission is a semi-state institutional investor with an investment fund that provides investment funding for businesses, community and creative industries in the western region of Ireland. Since establishment in 1997, Western Development Commission has invested more than €48 million in the western region, supporting 200+ enterprises, SMEs, micro and community enterprises and over 5,000 jobs. See more at https://westerndevelopment.ie/.
Enterprise Ireland is the Irish government organisation responsible for the development and growth of Irish enterprises in world markets. Enterprise Ireland is Europe’s largest seed investor, and second globally by number of investments. Enterprise Ireland invests in high-potential startups (HPSUs)with the potential to develop an innovative product or service for sale on international markets. See more at https://enterprise-ireland.com/en/.
National University of Ireland, Galway was established in 1845 and ranks among the top 1% of Universities in the world. The BioInnovate Ireland programme is a national medical device innovation training programme based out of NUI Galway which is supported by Enterprise Ireland. Through its Innovation Office the university champions knowledge-transfer commercialisation. Ten high-quality companies, many in the medtech sector, have been spun-out by the university in the last four years. NUI Galway also support the vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem among students and staff, and in the region. The Translational Medical Device Lab, led by Dr. Martin O’Halloran, seeks to bridge the gap between industry and academia by adopting industry best-practice in device development, and supporting the medtech sector in both device design and clinical evaluation of novel devices. See more at https://www.nuigalway.ie/, https://www.bioinnovate.ie/, and https://tmdlab.ie/.
Further Supporters of InVera Medical™
InVera Medical™ has been further supported to this point by EIT Health (2018 UK-Ireland Headstart funding winners), a network of best-in-class health innovators backed by the EU to enable European citizens to live longer and healthier lives. InVera was championed by the Medtech Innovator Accelerator (2019 finalist), the medtech industry’s global accelerator and venture competition for transformative innovations that benefit patients and deliver improved healthcare value. InVera successfully featured in the Texas Medical Center TMCx Accelerator 2019 Medical device cohort, a premier medical device accelerator advancing healthcare worldwide by connecting visionary entrepreneurs to the Texas Medical Center, the largest medical city in the world. InVera was also awarded “Best Early Stage” company at the Connacht & Leinster Final of the 2019 InterTradeIreland Seedcorn Investor Readiness Competition which highlights high growth start-up companies on the island of Ireland.