MicroOptx, a medical device company that won the Minnesota Cup's grand prize in 2017, has raised $13.8 million in a planned $16.8 million round, according to an SEC filing.
The company raised the $13.8 million from 48 investors, the filing states. The round was co-led by Minneapolis-based First Light Asset Management and TC Healthcare Partners. Other investors included Carl Zeiss, a German manufacturer of optical systems, and a number of previous angel investors. MicroOptx CEO Chris Pulling told Minne Inno that the company plans to close the round in mid-July.
Maple Grove-based MicroOptx makes a device for treating glaucoma, a condition that causes damage to the optic nerve and results in vision loss. The company offers a tiny implant that aims to reduce pressure on these nerves.
Dr. David Brown, who serves as chief of ophthalmology at the Minnesota Veterans Administration, invented MicroOptx's technology. Pulling learned about the technology while serving as CEO of contract research firm Integra Group.
In late 2017, MicroOptx won the grand prize in the Minnesota Cup, the state's largest startup competition, and received $50,000. Since winning the competition, MicroOptx has started human clinical trials and currently has 23 patients implanted with the device in the U.S. and Germany.
"We now have 12 months of data on 10 of them, and are very happy with the results so far," Pulling said.
The company's most recent round is its largest fundraising to date. It will be used to fund a larger, pivotal clinical trial in that will begin in August. The financing will fund that study through submission to the FDA.
MicroOptx raised $1.4 million about a month after winning the Cup. Prior to that, the startup brought in $2.4 million in 2015 to wrap up a licensing deal for the intellectual property behind its technology.
