CroíValve Secures €3.2M in Angel Funding to Advance Minimally Invasive Device for Tricuspid Valve Regurgitation

VCBeat (WeChat ID: vcbeat) has learned that on March 28, 2019, the Irish medical device company CroíValve announced the completion of a €3.2 million angel financing round. The investors comprised 48 individuals from HBAN, an angel investment organization operating on a “syndicate” model.

Syndicate Model: Two or more individual investors jointly share the risks and returns of investing in startups. The advantage of this model is that it lowers the investment threshold.

CroíValve was founded in 2016 by Dr. Lucy O'Keefe and Dr. Martin Quinn, with its headquarters in Dublin, Ireland. Dr. O'Keefe holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering from University College Dublin and a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Limerick. She previously served as a Project Leader at Medtronic, where she spearheaded the research and development of transcatheter heart valves. Additionally, she worked at Nypro Healthcare, designing drug delivery devices for leading global pharmaceutical companies.

CroíValve is developing a minimally invasive device for the treatment of tricuspid regurgitation, leveraging technology from the Trinity College Centre for Bioengineering. Tricuspid regurgitation is a common valvular heart disease in which the valve between the right ventricle and right atrium fails to close properly, causing blood to flow back into the right atrium. This leads to significant right atrial enlargement, elevated pressure, and impaired venous return. Common symptoms include fatigue, dyspnea, and lower extremity edema.

Schematic Diagram of the Heart

In Europe and the United States, there are over 550,000 patients with severe valvular heart disease annually. However, due to high surgical risks (operative mortality rates of 10%–35%) and prohibitive costs, fewer than 1% of these patients undergo surgical treatment. CroíValve has developed a compact, minimally invasive device that can be delivered transvenously to the right ventricle. The device fills the gaps between valve leaflets, thereby preventing regurgitation. This approach offers a rapid and cost-effective treatment option, eliminating the need for prolonged hospitalization.

Schematic Diagram of Device Operation (Source: Screenshot from CroíValve Official Website Video)

“As angel investors, we are not only providing funding to CroíValve but also offering professional technical expertise and industry resources,” said Bernard Collins, Executive Director of HBAN. “This will help CroíValve rapidly commercialize its heart valve device.” Upon completion of the investment, Bernard Collins will become the Chairman of CroíValve.

“We welcome the support of investors and look forward to working together to deliver valuable products for patients. The company will use this funding to further refine its device and expand its team, with plans to increase the number of R&D personnel to 10 by the end of 2019,” said Dr. O'Keefe, CEO of CroíValve.

HBAN is an angel investment organization in Ireland. Unlike traditional models, it adopts a syndicate model. HBAN is committed to promoting the development of angel investment in Ireland, with Dublin as its core while expanding into other regions, and its investments span multiple industries. In 2017, HBAN investors invested €12.8 million in 12 companies.

(Compiled by: Yang Shaobo)