Novo Seeds, the early-stage investment arm of pharmaceutical firm Novo, has led a $17.1m series B round for France-based medical technology developer Corwave.
The round also included Bpifrance, the public investment bank of France, as well as venture capital firms Sofinnova Partners, Seventure Partners and Ysios Capital.
Corwave has developed a pump that is implanted in patients suffering from heart failure. The pump mimics the heart’s natural flow pattern, as opposed to current technologies which have not yet able to achieve that degree of accuracy.
Emmanuelle Coutanceau, investment director at Novo Seeds, and Josep Lluis Sanfeliu, general partner at Ysios, will join Corwave’s board of directors. Michel Darnaud, president for cardiac surgery at medical technology company LivaNova, will serve as an independent director.
Corwave previously received an undisclosed amount of series A funding from medical device company Medtronic, Bpifrance, Sofinnova and Seventure in 2013. The company emerged out of incubator MD Start in 2011.
Emmanuelle Coutanceau said: “Our due diligences showed that Corwave is perfectly aligned with the expectations of cardiac surgeons and cardiologists alike. We are pleased to join CorWave in its effort to turn this vision into reality.”