Wednesday, July 23, 2008

VisEn Medical buoyed by $3.5M

By Mass High Tech Staff

VisEn Medical Inc., a maker of fluorescence-imaging products, has reported that it received venture debt financing worth $3.5 million from GE Healthcare Financial Services.

The financing will assist VisEn in globally commercializing its fluorescence-in vivo imaging technology systems.

Woburn-based VisEn completed its second round of venture capital financing in October, according to a regulatory filing.

The firm had closed a $6.9 million Series B financing led by Cambridge’s Flagship Ventures and Merck Capital Ventures LLC, the venture capital arm of New Jersey-based drug giant Merck & Co. Inc., according to VisEn and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission records. The company reports that The Bollard Group, of Boston, and other previous investors also participated in the financing.

The second round of funding was expected to expand the firm’s sales and marketing staff, launch new products and fund research and development of its clinical imaging technology.

Founded in 2000, VisEn has developed and commercialized fluorescence-in vivo imaging technology first discovered by a researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. The company has raised a total of $12.5 million in venture funding.

Earlier this month, VisEn announced a new lease on a 23,000-square-foot facility in Bedford. The company plans to move from its 11,000-square-foot space in Woburn in August.

GE Healthcare Financial Services has offered more than $2.5 billion in funding to every stage and size of life sciences companies, numbering more than 500, throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe, according to the firm.