October has been a good month for Erik Maltais.
October 1, he and his team of 20 employees moved into a 4,500 sq. ft. space in The Beck Group building, diagonal from Armature Works.
He began preparing to present at the Startup of the Year competition in Nashville, where his medtech company Immertec will face off with some of the best startups in the nation on Wednesday.
And October 10, his company snagged $6 million from 24 investors, according to an SEC filing.
Immertec is a medical technology company that helps physicians train and learn remotely, using virtual reality. Maltais said the latest funding will go to continue to grow the team and further product development.
The Series A funding round was led by New York City-based Benvolio Group, with PAR Inc. and Rise of the Rest also ponying up funds. According to Maltais, 50% of participants are strategic investors and none are venture capital funds.
"It's just building relationships with investors and being committed to not stopping," he said. "They can tell when you're just trying to raise money. If they believe in you and your team, people wanna be involved. Because of that reason we don't have to go to VCs."
The personal relationships he built came from an unlikely source. The very physicians Immertec is trying to help, put them in contact with investors.
"What matters are the physicians," he said. "They're saving lives and the more you focus on them, you realize they're just as passionate as we are. Because we’re not a medical device company, they're not worried about 'What are you trying to sell me?' You mention this overnight success story and we attribute it to finding the right investment tactic and sticking to it."
Like most funding asks, persistence was key and it paid off. After winning the Rise of the Rest competition in May, Maltais used the trajectory to make one final ask from investors.
"At first, we got a lot of no's," he said. "But we kept up everyone on a monthly list and we constantly reached out. And after Rise of the Rest, we wanted to capitalize on the moment and put it on a time limit of either you're investing, or you're not."
The investment will fund Immertec for two years and Maltais is also applying for several grant options that could continue to spur growth.
"We thought it would bring in people who believed in us," he said.
As for the future, Maltais is hopeful to lock down 10 of the top 50 medical institutions to use his company's technology and wants to launch a medical physician advisory board — all from Tampa Bay.
"We’re committed to Tampa Bay," he said. "(Building the company) is nerve wracking and it's not a lot of sleep and no personal life, but I do it because I have extraordinary people on my team."
