Innovative Pulsatile Heart Pumps for Acute Patients: NovaPump secures seven-digit Financing Round

June 3, 2020

NovaPump, one of the leading developers and medical product manufacturers of percutaneous circulatory mechanical support systems (pMCS) announced the successful closing of a series A financing round with a consortium of institutional and strategic investors.

NovaPump’s PERKAT™ (PERkutane KATheterpumpe) short term MCS for acute patients achieved important milestones within the last months. With this financing round it is possible to develop the PERKAT™ products further to the first-in-man (FIM) trials. The PERKAT RV device can be implanted to increase cardiac output (CO) of patients, who suffer from acute heart failure due to pulmonary embolism or myocardial infarction. Currently, these patients have an extremely high mortality rate. The MCS improves CO if drug treatment fails to stabilize the hemodynamic condition in such cases. The PERKAT MCS from NovaPump employs a unique self-expanding mechanism of the pump chamber. PERKAT is completely catheter-based, ECG controlled, and combines physiologic pulsatile mechanism and an automated pump mode.

Our heart pumps can be implanted under X-Ray control within a few minutes. They work in a pulsatile manner using ECG or pressure trigger to physiologically support the failing human heart. Post CE approval, our devices will be a meaningful application for current IABP  (Intra Aortic Balloon Counterpulsation) technology, which is available for treatment in most heart centres worldwide today. The PERKAT heart pumps can further increase our therapeutic options with MCS in cardiogenic shock patients.

Prof Markus Ferrari (MD), co-founder and inventor of PERKAT

We are very pleased about the trust placed in us from our new investors (a global med-tech company) and our seed investors HTGF and bm-t. We will use these A-round funds to further progress on our next milestones, including the planned clinical trial for our right heart pump and to advance our research collaborations with our R&D partners in the field of short-term mechanical circulation support.

Ronald Reich, founder and CEO of NovaPump

With this investment round NovaPump has attained the necessary budget to develop the PERKAT heart pumps further to the first in man trial. We are pleased to be investing as part of a strong consortium with a global med-tech partner who extends the capabilities of NovaPump with deep industry expertise in this field.

Dr Martin Pfister, senior investment manager from HTGF

In Germany alone there are about 250.000 cases of myocardial infarction annually. Over the last two decades, since having modern percutaneous MCS available, the mortality rate after an acute myocardial infarction could be decreased effectively due to this novel cutting-edge technique. Today’s percutaneous MCS could be implanted in the catheter lab via the leg vessels (Seldingers’ technique) directly to the humans heart within an implantation time of less than 15 minutes. Self-expanding and especially pulsatile catheter-based MCS like the PERKAT heart pumps will offer clinicians a further physiologically optimized therapy option and aim to save additional multiple thousands of lives annually.

About NovaPump
The Jena-based cardiology start-up is developing new kinds of mechanical support systems (MCS) for acute patients that are percutaneous, self-expanding, and pulsatile. These MCS are intended for temporary use with a maximum duration of 14 days. The company´s original PERKAT RV right-heart pump was largely grant funded by the BMBF (Federal Ministry of Education and Research), and the BMBF is also now funding the development of a next generation left heart pump through a research network consortium. NovaPump was founded by a team of scientists, clinicians and business economists in Jena, Germany in 2012.

Contact
NovaPump GmbH
Ronald Reich, Am Steinborn 103a
07749 Jena
T.: +49 3641 4814938
info@novapump.de

About bm-t
Erfurt-based, bm-t beteiligungsmanagement Thüringen (bm|t) – a subsidiary of the Thüringen Development Bank, is the first address for investments in Thüringen, Germany.  bm-t currently manages eight investment funds with a total volume of 400M EUR.  bm-t invests in innovative companies with strong growth potential across all sectors and all phases of the corporate lifecycle.

About Sparkasse Jena
The Sparkasse Jena-Saale-Holzland is the largest regional financial partner and has been rooted in the region since 1828. Investments such as those in NovaPump are an important contribution to economic development in the region. This is why Sparkasse Jena-Saale-Holzland will continue to support further business start-ups in the future. The strong regional know-how is thus bundled through good networking and is intended to support the dynamic start-up scene.

About High-Tech Gründerfonds
The seed investor High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) finances technology start-ups with growth potential. With a volume of approximately 900 million euros distributed over three funds and an international partner network, the HTGF has supported almost 600 start-ups since 2005. Its team of experienced investment managers and start-up experts support the young companies with know-how, entrepreneurial spirit and passion. The focus lies on high-tech start-ups in the fields of digital business models, industrial technology, life sciences, chemistry and related business areas. To date, external investors have invested more than 2.4 billion euros of capital in the HTGF portfolio in more than 1,500 follow-up financing rounds. The fund has also successfully sold shares in more than 100 companies.

Investors in the public-private partnership include the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy, KfW Capital, the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and 32 companies. Our Fund Investors

Kontakt
High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH
Martin Pfister
Schlegelstraße 2
53113 Bonn
T.: +49 228 823 00 123
m.pfister@htgf.de