LEUVEN, Belgium--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Medical device company TROD Medical NV/SA today announced that it has successfully completed a Series B financing round for EUR4.75m co-led by Vesalius Biocapital through its Vesalius Biocapital II Arkiv N.V. Fund (Brussels Belgium) and Capricorn Venture Partners through its Capricorn Health-tech Fund (Leuven, Belgium). Other investors in the Series B round are Gemma Frisius Fund, the spin-off fund of the University of Leuven (Leuven, Belgium) and the Flemish investment company PMV, through its healthcare fund FCI (Brussels, Belgium). This funding will be used to perform clinical studies in both Europe and the US to further validate the EncageTM technology for the focal treatment of prostate cancer.
As part of the financing, TROD Medical relocated its head office to Leuven, Belgium. In addition, TROD medical will enter into a collaboration with the Medical Imaging Research Center (MIRC), an interdisciplinary research center in the University Hospitals Leuven, campus Gasthuisberg.
Andre Faure established TROD Medical to develop and commercialize a radio frequency based technology called EncageTM, which allows very precise soft tissue ablation, including cancer spots in the prostate. The TROD Medical technology EncageTM offers an innovative type of treatment with reduced risk of side effects, like impotence and incontinence. The first patients were successfully treated in a pilot study.
'This transaction is a great example of how a number of local actors can make the difference: the involvement of a strong local investor syndicate and the input of local know-how and expertise will allow TROD Medical to advance and optimize its product offer,' commented Frank Bulens, Partner at Capricorn Venture Partners.
Stéphane Verdood, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Vesalius Biocapital said, 'We are very happy that we identified this opportunity back in 2012 and that we could convince the founders and CEO to move to Flanders. The technology is great and very promising.'
TROD Medical Chief Executive Andre Faure commented, 'This new financing round will allow expansion of our EncageTM RF ablation technology in outstanding Centers in the US and Europe. The Urology Community is very excited about the precision and consistency of our EncageTM ablation device and it won't take long to establish our technology as the only one really effective for focal ablation treatments.'
As part of the financing Frank Bulens (Capricorn Venture Partners) and Stéphane Verdood (Vesalius BioCapital) joined the Board of Directors.
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About TROD Medical NV/SA
Trod Medical is a Medical Device Company, with headquarters in Leuven (Belgium) and Tampa Bay area (USA). The Company, incepted in 2006 by Dr. Andre Faure, developed significant expertise in developing innovative ablation technologies, particularly Radio Frequency (RF) ablation devices.
Trod Medical developed a disruptive percutaneous RF device, the EncageTM, able to ablate tissues with a degree of precision unmatched by competition. The technology represents a major breakthrough in treatments where collateral tissue damage is a significant burden to patients, like prostate cancer.
Prostate Cancer is one of the most common cancers, with around 240,000 new cases per year in the US alone, and is notably known for the inability of its commonly used treatments in avoiding significant side effects, like erectile dysfunction (impotence) and urinary incontinence.
About Capricorn Health-Tech Fund and Capricorn Venture Partners
Capricorn Venture Partners is an independent pan-European venture capital and asset manager seeking to invest in technology based growth companies. Capricorn's dedicated investment teams are composed of experienced investment professionals with deep technology expertise and a broad industrial experience. Capricorn is investing out of its Capricorn Cleantech Fund, its Capricorn Health-tech Fund, the Capricorn ICT Arkiv and is managing Quest for Growth, a cross-over fund quoted on EuroNext Brussels, and the Quest Management Cleantech Sicav.
For more information, visit http://www.capricorn.be.
About Vesalius Biocapital
Vesalius Biocapital is a pan-european venture capital group investing in early stage innovative biotech companies. Most of our investments consist of therapeutic companies, developing new drugs and devices. Out total fund size is 160m EUR. The team is composed of experienced life science experts and business people.
For more information visit www.vesaliusbiocapital.com
About Gemma Frisius Fund
In 1997, KU Leuven, Fortis Private Equity Belgium and KBC Bank established the Gemma Frisius Fund (GFF) as a seed capital fund designed to stimulate the creation and growth of KU Leuven spin-off companies. Over the years, the GFF has invested EUR 26 million in 39 KU Leuven spin-off companies.
For more information, please visit www.lrd.kuleuven.be/en/spinoff/gemma-frisius-fund
About PMV nv
PMV nv is a Flemish investment company. It finances promising entrepreneurs from the very start through the growth and to the internationalization of their business. It also invests in large infrastructure projects and real estate. It focuses on the sustainable economic development of Flanders, with demonstrable added value for both economy and society (www.pmv.eu).