Middle Peak Medical: US Mitral Valve Start-Up Goes To Europe For Funding

Article preview from Start-Up - July, 2013

 You know times are tough for medtech start-ups in the US when even a successful serial entrepreneur like Michael Lesh, MD, is told by VCs, “We love your idea, but….” Middle Peak Medical, Lesh’s new start-up in the mitral valve space, solved its problem with a Series A financing round involving European investors and by co-locating itself in Germany and the US.

Middle Peak Medical: US Mitral Valve Start-Up Goes To Europe For Funding

Article preview from Start-Up - July, 2013

You know times are tough for medtech start-ups in the US when even a successful serial entrepreneur like Michael Lesh, MD, is told by VCs, “We love the technology, haven’t seen anything like it, but it’s too early for us.” Generally speaking, VCs don’t like early stage companies as much as they used to, and they’re avoiding the kinds of implant companies that are subject to the PMA regulatory process, since, in having to navigate the highest hurdles at the FDA, getting these products to market costs more time and money than limited partners can stomach these days.

Lesh is, of course, the successful electrophysiologist/entrepreneur who founded atrial fibrillation company Atrionix Inc., which was sold to Johnson & Johnson in 2000, mitral valve repair company MitraLife Inc., and Appriva Medical Inc., the developer of the first left atrial appendage occlusion device to prevent stroke, both bought by ev3 Inc. (now part of Covidien Ltd. ). (See"Two Physicians' Views from the Device Innovator's Workbench" — IN VIVO, July 2003.) He recently co-founded Middle Peak Medical Inc. with Alex Khairkhahan, the founder of CardioKinetix Inc. (and the inventor of the Parachute left ventricular partitioning device for congestive heart failure), and a key player at Appriva and Nanostim Inc. (developing a leadless pacemaker).

The team had some encouraging chronic animal data on a new device for mitral valve repair and was testing the waters, meeting with investors they had long-standing relationships with. While following the advice of US VCs that they’d need to get human clinical data first, they were approached by Regina Hodits, PhD, a partner at European venture capital firm Wellington Partners. Hodits says Wellington had been looking for the right opportunity in the mitral valve space, and saw it in Middle Peak Medical. Wellington led a syndicate of European investors, including Seventure Partners and Germany’s seed fund, High-Tech Gründerfonds Management, raising $8.5 million for the company’s Series A round.

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