Novartis Venture Funds, the $750m corporate venturing division of pharmaceutical firm Novartis, has led a SWF5m ($4.5m) first round of funding for NanoPowers, a Switzerland-based medical device company that makes artificial muscles.
Initiative Capital Romandie, a SWF15m VC fund run by Switzerland’s DEFI Gestion private equity group and which last invested in Endosense last year, and Gran Plasa, a local private investment fund, also joined Novartis in the series A financing of NanoPowers.
Novartis Venture Funds was also the seed investor in the company.
Martin Horst, chief executive officer of NanoPowers, said: "We will use the proceeds from the financing to finalise the development of our lead product Artus, an artificial urinary sphincter, and initiate the first clinical studies. Artus is the first device of its kind that also lends itself to be easily implanted in women, who are by far the most affected by severe incontinences."
Florent Gros, managing director of the Novartis Venture Funds, which has at least 10% of its portfolio in med-tech, said: "Incontinence is one of the largest untapped markets in the medical device industry, while demographic changes in western countries are significantly increasing the incidence of incontinences."