Middle Peak Medical Raises an Additional $3M to Develop Novel Mitral Valve Technology

MUNICH and PALO ALTO, California, October 28, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

BioMedPartners and Edwards LifeSciences Join Series A in Second Closing

Middle Peak Medical, a development-stage medical device company that will commercialize a novel technology for treating mitral valve disease, has raised an additional $3M in a second closing of its over-subscribed Series A financing, which now totals approximately $11M. Additional Series A investors include BioMedInvest II LP and Edwards LifeSciences (NYSE: EW). Lead investors Wellington Partners and Seventure Partners, added to their investment from the first close, which also included High-Tech Gruenderfonds.

The proceeds will provide capital for further development of Middle Peak's unique technology for treating mitral valve disease. Middle Peak has R&D operations in Palo Alto, and its clinical and regulatory operations in Europe.

Michael D. Lesh, MD, CEO and co-founder of the Company, commented: "We are delighted to have Biomed Partners and Edwards LifeSciences as additional investors. Their involvement further affirms our novel approach to treating mitral valve disease. These additional resources will further accelerate pre-clinical and clinical development. Middle Peak intends to bring significant benefit to patients with mitral regurgitation, the most common valvular heart disease."

BioMedPartners' Thomas Moeller commented: "We are very excited to have the opportunity to invest in Middle Peak. This is breakthrough technology. We see great potential of their devices to revolutionize the care of patients with mitral regurgitation."

Wellington Partners' Regina Hodits, PhD added: "We are delighted to have BioMedPartners and Edwards LifeSciences join the Series A syndicate of investors, and for Wellington to add to our initial investment. Middle Peak's strong management team, including Dr. Lesh and his co-founder, Alex Khairkhahan, are making significant progress in developing this truly novel, elegant device."

Seventure venture partner Robert Schier, PhD noted that: "Middle Peak has a breakthrough technology that addresses a vast unmet need in the treatment of cardiac disease. We have every confidence in Dr. Lesh and Mr. Khairkhahan, who have previously brought a number of medical devices from conception to successful market entry, and are thrilled to add such well-regarded investors to our syndicate, and to expand our lead investment."

About Middle Peak Medical

Middle Peak Medical is a privately held medical device company, focused on developing a break-through device to meet unmet needs in the treatment of mitral valve disease. The Company's technology has application in both minimally invasive cardiac surgery, and catheter-based percutaneous intervention. Mitral regurgitation (MR) is the most common form of heart valve disease in the U.S. and Europe, with moderate to severe disease affecting 1-2% of the population. Normally, the mitral valve closes when the main pumping chamber of the heart, the left ventricle, contracts, preventing oxygen-carrying blood from flowing backward into the left atrium. MR occurs when the valve fails to seal completely. Patients with MR can experience difficulty breathing, weakness, heart failure, and even death.

Middle Peak Medical currently has operating entities in Germany and the United States.

About Wellington Partners

Wellington Partners is among the most successful pan-European Venture Capital firms. With more than € 800 million under management and offices in Munich, London and Zurich, Wellington Partners invests in start-up companies throughout Europe that have the potential to become global leaders in the areas of digital media, resource efficiency and life sciences.

Since 1998, Wellington Partners has invested in more than 100 companies, including publicly listed firms like Actelion, Evolva, Wavelight (acquired by Alcon) and Xing, as well as privately held companies like AyoxxA, Grandis (acquired by Novartis), immatics, implanet, invendo medical, mtm laboratories (acquired by Roche), Oxagen, Oxford Immunotec, Quanta, Sapiens, Sensimed, Supersonic Imagine, Symetis and Spotify. For further information, please visit http://www.wellington-partners.com.

About Seventure Partners

As one of the leading venture capital firms in Europe, Seventure manages more than €500 million and, since 1997, invests in innovative businesses with high growth potential in software, internet, hardware & telecom in France and Germany, and in life sciences throughout Europe. In life sciences, we invest in biotech & pharmaceuticals, medical devices, industrial biotech, cleantech, and microbiota, nutrition & lifestyle. We also consider investments in diagnostics, biomarkers, drug delivery systems, environment, bio-energy, and services. A typical investment ranges from €500,000 to €5 million per round, up to €10 million per company, from early to later stage. Seventure is a subsidiary of Natixis, the corporate, investment management and financial services arm of Groupe BPCE, the second-largest French bank.

About High-Tech Gründerfonds Management

High-Tech Gruenderfonds invests in young, high potential high-tech start-ups. The seed financing provided is designed to enable start-ups to take an idea through prototyping and to market launch. Typically, High-Tech Gruenderfonds invests € 500,000 in the seed stage, with the potential for up to a total of € 2 million per portfolio company in follow-on financing. Investors in this public/private partnership include the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, the KfW Banking Group, as well as strategic corporate investors including ALTANA, BASF, B. Braun, Robert Bosch, CEWE Color, Daimler, Deutsche Post DHL, Deutsche Telekom, Evonik, Lanxess, media + more venture Beteiligungs GmbH & Co. KG, METRO, Qiagen, RWE Innogy, SAP, Tengelmann and Carl Zeiss. High-Tech Gruenderfonds has about EUR 573.5 million under management in two funds (€ 272 million HTGF I, € 301.5 million HTGF II). For further information, visit http://www.htgf.de‎

About BioMedPartners

BioMedPartners is one of the leading European venture capital firms providing private equity and mezzanine financing to early- and mid-stage healthcare and human life science companies. Their team consists of experienced investment professionals with extensive expertise in investing and building healthcare companies. Currently, BioMedPartners manages two investment vehicles, BioMedInvest I and BioMedInvest II with a total capital under management of CHF 250 million. Both funds invest in innovative early- to mid-stage companies that have the potential to achieve exceptional growth driven by novel technologies, products or services with unique advantages over current treatments. Based in Basel, BioMedPartners has successfully invested in 40 human life science companies over the last ten years, of which a number has already been listed on the stock exchange or have been acquired by leading players in the pharmaceutical industry.

For further information, please contact: [email protected]

SOURCE Middle Peak Medical