Thursday, July 3, 2008

SurgiQuest seals up $4.8M funding

By Ryan McBride

A Connecticut medical devices startup has become the latest in a series of small developers of tools for minimally invasive surgeries to garner venture capital.

SurgiQuest Inc., of Orange, Conn., has raised $4.8 million in a Series B VC round to develop devices designed for urological and gastrointestinal surgeries, according to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The financing round comes after the firm’s recent announcements about the use of its “AirSeal” system in a surgery to remove a gallbladder, as well as a separate procedure to take out an ovary.

The company says its AirSeal device uses aerodynamics to create an airtight area in which to perform surgeries. The device is designed to be used in surgeries that require tiny cuts in the body rather than larger incisions needed in traditional procedures. The company did not return any requests last week to comment, and the regulatory status of AirSeal is unclear.

SurgiQuest is led by a collection of former executives of US Surgical — a Connecticut medical devices division of health-care products giant Covidien Ltd. (NYSE: COV), based in Mansfield — including SurgiQuest CEO Kurt Azarbarzin and Timothy Nolan, vice president of sales and marketing for the startup.

“The bottom line is that the minimally invasive surgery segment of the medical device industry is picking up steam and clearly has a lot of momentum,” said David Dykeman, a biomedical patent attorney at Greenberg Traurig LLP in Boston, who serves on the board of the Massachusetts Medical Device Industry Council, or MassMEDIC.

Dykeman, who was not familiar with SurgiQuest, said minimally invasive procedures represent the future of surgery because they reduce hospital stays and recovery times for patients.

New England developers of devices for minimally invasive surgery have drawn plenty of venture investments in recent months. OmniGuide Inc., a Cambridge maker of flexible laser scalpels used in such procedures, raised $25 million in a Series E round of VC in May. And Newton startup Corindus Inc. in April reeled in $12.8 million in a Series B round of financing to develop its remote-controlled catheter system for cardiovascular surgeries.

SurgiQuest’s VC investors include California Technology Ventures LLC of Pasadena; CMEA Ventures and Aphelion Capital, both of San Francisco; as well as Mosaix Ventures of Chicago.