Medical Alley companies beat Q1 investment total

A surge in first-quarter 2019 investments in Medical Alley Association member startups pushed them past their performance in the same quarter last year, according to the Minnesota-based trade group.

Seven of the 10 largest raises of the quarter went to medical device companies, which propelled the sector to its best first quarter on record, nearly doubling the second-best total. The funded companies make products ranging from cardiopulmonary intervention devices to novel orthopedic treatments for both chronic and acute conditions.

Nuvaira raised $79 million in a new equity financing round in February to support its Lung Denervation System through the FDA approval process. The system is intended to treat airway hyper-responsiveness, which the Minneapolis-based company said is a pathophysiologic underpinning of both chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma.  A stock-and-warrants offering recently brought in more than $12 million for Eden Prairie, Minn.-based CHF Solutions (NSDQ:CHFS). Monteris Medical (Plymouth, Minn.) brought in nearly $11 million in January from its latest investment round as it expands sales and marketing of its NeuroBlate robot-assisted brain surgery device.

The median raise for Medical Alley members in the quarter was $2 million, another record-breaker for Q1 median raises among association members, and higher than any two quarters since the 35-year-old trade group started recording data.

“Taken in the context of stellar years in 2017 and 2018, it is clear that Medical Alley’s startup community — already a huge asset — has taken a step forward and become even more widely known and respected,” the association said in a prepared statement.

Medtech and related industries as a whole attracted $643 million in 45 deals in Q4 2018, down from $738 million in 43 deals for the third quarter of 2018, but up from $527 million in 55 deals in the same quarter of 2017, according to the MoneyTree report from PricewaterhouseCoopers and CB Insight. Compared to the prior quarter, medtech saw a 16% decrease in funding from Q3’18 to Q4’18.

The full report may be found here.

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