Medtech developer StarFish Medical acquires California-based Omnica Corporation, strengthening base in a major market

This is the company's second acquisition in seven years and brings StarFish Medical closer to clients in California — a major center of medical device innovation. 

VICTORIA, BC and TORONTO, Nov. 4, 2024 /PRNewswire/ - StarFish Medical, a leading North American full-service medical device development company, announced today that it has acquired Omnica Corporation, a Southern California powerhouse in medical device design and engineering. 

The acquisition brings together these two highly complementary businesses and allows StarFish Medical to expand its local footprint to California, a key market that has been ranked the top U.S. state for MedTech innovation. 

StarFish Medical intends to retain the remaining team at Omnica Corporation, thereby adding the expertise of employees at this 40-year-old company to its repertoire. 

The acquisition also includes Omnica's 25,000-square-foot facility in Irvine, CA where the firm develops medical products like disposables, diagnostic products, hand-held instruments, monitoring equipment, point-of-care products, and surgical devices. 

"Adding Omnica to the StarFish family brings us closer to our clients in California and makes us even better placed to lead North America in MedTech innovation," said Scott Phillips, StarFish Medical CEO and Founder. "Omnica offers a team of experts in custom medical device development with a strong, local connection to their clients that rivals our own. Omnica's prototyping capacity is unparalleled in the industry.  I'm looking forward to joining forces to amplify the support we can offer to medical technology companies.

With this acquisition Omnica's co-founder, Earl Robinson, has announced his retirement.  "When Rex Bare and I started this company 40 years ago, no one had the vision of where technology might take us. Medical device design and development was, and is a fertile environment," Robinson said. "Our biggest strength has always been our people — the experts our clients rely on for their design, engineering, and prototyping needs. Joining the StarFish team broadens our network of proven industry experts, and our clients get extraordinary access to meet their needs."

This is StarFish Medical's second acquisition in seven years, after buying Kangaroo Group in Toronto in 2017 to expand its footprint to the east coast.  Now, with a presence in Victoria, Toronto and Irvine the company has 250 full time staff serving the entire North American market. 

About StarFish Medical: 

StarFish Medical provides award-winning design, development, commercialization, and flexible manufacturing outsourcing services, partnering with innovative companies to create and manufacture breakthrough products for a full range of medical specialty areas including Digital Health, Cardiovascular, Neurology, Urology, Gastroenterology, Otology, Ophthalmology, and In-Vitro Diagnostics. Services include QA support for setting up QMS for start-up companies with implementation at the client's site and assisting with ISO 13485 certification audits.

About Omnica Corporation:

Omnica Corporation is a privately held design, engineering, and medical product development firm located in Irvine, California, and has been in operation since 1984. Our expertise is developing complex medical devices. Technical personnel at Omnica includes designers, mechanical engineers, electronic and software engineers, advanced R&D specialists, regulatory staff (for FDA documentation), machinists and model makers. Omnica has partnered with startups and industry leaders alike to deliver world-class results that speak for themselves

SOURCE StarFish Medical