Houston-based Bivacor, a preclinical medical device company, raised $22 million through a Series B capital raise and a grant award.
Bivacor, which is developing an artificial heart medical device, announced the $19 million in Series B funding on May 19. The Series B raise was led by Boston-based Cormorant Asset Management and Australian venture capital firm OneVentures.
Additionally, Bivacor has received $3 million in Small Business Innovation Research grant funding from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute at the U.S. National Institute of Health.
The funding will go toward advancing Bivacor's preclinical verification efforts and hiring new team members to support the first human studies using its artificial heart device.
"The commitment and interest from our investors validates our technology and the need for improved options to treat end-stage biventricular heart failure," said Daniel Timms, founder, CEO and chief technology officer of Bivacor.
Bivacor is led by Timms and Chief Medical Officer Dr. William "Billy" Cohn, a renowned Houston heart surgeon and serial health care entrepreneur. The company is on the path to commercializing the Bivacor Total Artificial Heart, an implantable medical device "designed to replace the complete function of the native heart" for patients with severe heart failure.
Similar in size to an adult fist, the Bivacor artificial heart is based on rotary blood pump technology. The company says the device is small enough to be implanted into women and children as well as powerful enough to provide sufficient cardiac output to an exercising adult male.
Cohn, among the world's most famous artificial-heart innovators, previously had a private practice at Texas Heart Institute before taking a job with Johnson & Johnson. Cohn oversaw the opening of the J&J's Center for Device Innovation at the Texas Medical Center in 2017, where medical devices are prototyped, tested and manufactured on-site at the TMC Innovation Institute at 2450 Holcombe Blvd. He also serves as vice president for Johnson & Johnson Medical Device Cos., according to the company's website.
Founded in 2008, Bivacor is headquartered in Houston and has an international office in Brisbane, Australia.
