Thursday, June 5, 2008

Cardiorobotics collects first funding

By Ryan McBride

A Rhode Island medical robotics startup has attracted new capital as it develops its catheter-based probes for minimally invasive surgeries.

Cardiorobotics Inc., formerly Innovention Technologies, has closed a debt and warrants offering of $1.1 million, according to federal documents. Company officials said last year they had planned to raise $9 million to $10 million in a Series A round of venture capital in 2007. Cardiorobotics CEO and chairman David Wagner declined comment because, he said, the company is still in the process of closing its Series A financing.

The Slater Technology Fund, which is funded primarily by the state of Rhode Island, lured Cardiorobotics to the Ocean State from Pittsburgh in 2007 with an investment of $500,000. Richard Horan, senior managing director at Slater and director of Cardiorobotics, deferred comment about the company’s finances.

The startup’s experimental device is a robotic probe, controlled remotely, that is designed to enable surgeries to be done with minimal or no incisions in the body. Company officials have said the initial use of the device would be for cardiac surgeries, and clinical trials were expected to begin in 2009.

The company was originally based in Pittsburgh, where its founders at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Carnegie Mellon University continue to work on its robotics technology.

The firm isn’t alone in this arena. A Newton startup Corindus Inc. raised $12.8 million in a Series B round of private equity in April to develop its robotic catheters designed for use in cardiovascular surgeries. Another local medical robotics firm targeting the cardiovascular market is HeartLander Surgical Inc. of Westwood.