Late last week, a little company in Newport, R.I. made a big announcement; namely, that it had nabbed $11.6 million in a Series A funding round for its snake robot technology for minimally-invasive surgical procedures. Given the severely sluggish VC market and what feels like a dearth of new deals the past two quarters, this is certainly good news. We’ve had experience with Cardiorobotics before, and the science is really quite fascinating:
The company’s main product, called cardioARM™, is a snake robot for minimally-invasive cardiac interventions, such as treatments for heart arrhythmias. Cardiac surgery is currently the gold standard treatment option for patients with chronic heart arrhythmias, but open-heart surgery is fraught with complication possibilities, and performing a single-port, epicardial (outside the heart) intervention in a less invasive manner can dramatically improve patient recovery and significantly decrease risks involved with the current procedures.
Founded in 2005 as Innovention Technologies, Cardiorobotics began as a collaboration between scientists and clinicians from Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh. In 2007, the company established operations in Newport, and is currently hoping to begin clinical trials in the second half of this year in an aim for regulatory submission in 2010. Keep an eye out for these guys: