Pathfinder Medical, which has developed a proprietary technology to guide and accurately align catheters in endovascular procedures allowing clinicians to make connections across blood vessels in the body without the need for open surgery, has announced securing £8.5 million.
The funding is led by investors BGF and Parkwalk, joined by a number of industry insiders, and with support from existing investor Deepbridge Capital, a press release from the company says.
Pathfinder was co-founded in 2014 by Robert Dickinson and CEO Sorin Popa, following the latter’s research at Imperial College London into the use of electric fields for guidance in medical device procedures. The key application of the technology is in the dialysis field, where a robust connection needs to be made between an artery and a vein to enable the filtering of the blood. Traditionally, this was done through an open surgical arteriovenous fistula (AVF) creation procedure, whereas Pathfinder’s device enables a minimally invasive, endovascular approach (endoAVF), the release notes.
The multimillion-pound investment has been raised to support additional preclinical work, complete a pivotal trial in patients, and ultimately secure regulatory approval prior to commercialisation in key medical markets across the world. To date, the business has received over £6 million of funding from investors including Deepbridge, a consortium of angels and specialist grant funders.
BGF has invested over £100 million in a range of ground-breaking medtech companies to date. Recent investments include the likes of OrganOx, Vasorum and Locate Bio.
