The Foundry Announces Completion of Series A Financing for Twelfth Company

MENLO PARK, Calif., Jan. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- The Foundry, LLC, a leading medical device company incubator, announced today that it has completed a $3M Series A financing for its twelfth new company, funded by Morgenthaler Ventures, Split Rock Partners, and Domain Associates. The financing will provide the resources to continue inventing, developing and commercializing breakthrough solutions to major unmet medical needs. Foundry Newco XII is currently not disclosing its product or market plans. Allan Will, founding Managing Director of Split Rock Venture Partners, will continue as chairman of The Foundry, and Hank Plain, Partner of Morgenthaler Ventures, will continue to serve as Vice Chairman.

"My colleagues at Domain and I are excited to be working with The Foundry to develop the next generation of innovative medical device companies," said Nimesh Shah, Principal at Domain Associates. Over the past eleven years, The Foundry has created companies which have delivered breakthrough technologies to the clinic, including new therapies for stroke, obesity, hypertension, emphysema, and mitral valve disease. "We are thrilled to have the backing of Domain, which has over two decades of success in backing early-stage healthcare start-ups," said Hanson Gifford, Managing Partner of The Foundry. The Foundry's other Managing Partners are Mark Deem, Erik Engelson, Jeffry Grainger, and Kara Liebig.

About The Foundry

The Foundry was co-founded in 1998 by Allan Will and Hanson Gifford, to rapidly turn the best concepts into successful new medical device companies. In addition to inventing new technologies itself, The Foundry works closely with outside clinicians and inventors with promising ideas.  Over the past eleven years, The Foundry has formed over a dozen new companies, including Ardian, Cabochon Aesthetics, Cierra (acquired by Terumo), Concentric Medical, Emphasys Medical, Evalve (acquired by Abbott Labs), First to File (acquired by Mark Monitor), ForSight Labs, ForSight Vision 2 (acquired by QLT), Miramar Labs, Satiety, Transcend Medical and XTENT. The Foundry, LLC is located in Menlo Park, California.  For more information, visit the company's website at www.thefoundry.com.

About Morgenthaler Ventures

Morgenthaler Ventures is a leading, national venture capital team with offices in Menlo Park, CA; Boston, MA; and Boulder, CO. It concentrates its investments in life sciences and information technology. Morgenthaler's Life Science Team focuses on biotechnology and medical devices. Recent investments include: Ardian, Avidia, Cabochon, CardioMind, Catalyst Biosciences, Emphasys, ForSight Labs, IPC The Hospitalist Company, Morphotek, Moximed, OncoMed Pharmaceuticals, Optiscan, Orexigen, Promedior, Satiety, Vertiflex and XTENT. The firm has approximately $3 billion under management and has funded more than 300 companies over its 40-year history. For more information on Morgenthaler and its portfolio companies, please visit: www.morgenthaler.com/ventures.

About Split Rock Partners

Split Rock Partners, with offices in Minneapolis and Menlo Park, seeks emerging opportunities in healthcare, software, and Internet services primarily in the Upper Midwest and West Coast.  In May 2008, the firm announced the closing of Split Rock Partners II, LP, a $300 million venture fund.  Split Rock Partners was formed in June 2004 by the healthcare and software investment teams of St. Paul Venture Capital and continues to manage St. Paul Venture Capital's existing healthcare and software portfolio.  Representative healthcare companies backed by Split Rock's team include industry leaders such as Ardian, Atritech, EBR, Entellus Medical, Evalve, The Foundry, Spine-Tech and Tornier.  Additional information about the firm can be found at www.splitrock.com.

About Domain Associates

Domain Associates is a venture capital firm with an exclusive focus on life sciences. The firm was formed in 1985 to permit its founding partners to continue to serve as the U.S. Advisor to Biotechnology Investments Ltd, the first life science focused venture investment fund. BIL counted among its initial investments several of today's dominant life science companies, including Amgen, Applied Biosystems, and Genzyme. Over the past 24 years Domain has raised eight Domain Partners funds with assets exceeding $2.7 billion. These funds have created and invested in over 210 life science companies. Domain is located in Princeton, NJ and in San Diego, CA. For more information, please visit www.domainvc.com.

www.thefoundry.com

SOURCE The Foundry