European medical technology accelerator called MD Start has raised $11.5 million to create and fund four new French companies that can fulfill unmet needs in the medical device market.
Led by French Tech Acceleration Fund which is managed by French investment bank Bpifrance, the round also saw participation of French VC firm Sofinnova Partners, Dublin-based Medtronic, and LivaNova, a London-based medical device company.
As part of the deal, four medical device companies will be incubated and managed by partners at the accelerator.
“MD Start II is not another fund, nor another incubator: MD Start II is the entrepreneur as well as the incubator and the investor,” Anne Osdoit, partner at MD Start, said in a press release. “We have both a strategic and a day-to-day hands-on approach to transforming innovative ideas into medical realities, in constant dialogue and partnership with the clinician inventors.”
Founded in 2009, the accelerator has led four companies to emerge – CorWave, LimFlow, Advanced Perfusion Diagnostics and Magnetic Pacing Technologies. To date, these companies have cumulatively raised nearly $45 million.
MD Start incubates companies for long periods of time (two to three years) and takes a more active approach in the daily management of its portfolio companies. Also, it enables entrepreneurs to tap into the MD Start partners’ experience in fundraising…
[Via: MedCityNews]