Stimdia Medical Inc., a University of Minnesota spinout that's engineering technology to wean patients off ventilators, raised $16.1 million in a recent funding round, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission report filed in late June.
The company plans to use the funding, the first tranche of a two-part funding round worth $30 million, to run a pivotal trial later this year, Stimdia's CEO Tim Miller said.
The round was led by Chattanooga, Tenn.-based Solas BioVentures with help from two other, unidentified companies.
The technology Stimdia is developing aims to help reduce wean times for patients on ventilators by stimulating nerves in the neck to activate the diaphragm, which can atrophy while undergoing treatment with mechanical ventilators. The company received a Breakthrough Device designation from the Food and Drug Administration for its pdSTIM System in 2021, which Miller said will help make regulatory processes more efficient
Miller said the technology will help get patients out of hospitals' intensive care units more quickly. About 40% of a patient's time in the ICU is spent weaning off a ventilator, and more than half of ICU patients are ventilated within a day of admission, according to the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma.
Stimdia was founded in September 2015 out of the University of Minnesota. The company has previously received funding from investors like Draper Triangle Ventures, the University of Minnesota Discovery Capital Fund, Piedmont Capital Partners, and other angel investors.
Jim Bullock is the company's chairman. Bullock previously co-founded medtech company Atritech, which was sold to Boston Scientific Corp. for $375 million, and Endocatrdial Solutions, which he took public in 1997 and sold to St. Jude Medical Inc. for $273 million in 2005.
— Ethan Nelson, staff writer
