Aurora Medical Technologies, a Minneapolis med-tech company that's making a device for complicated endoscopic surgeries, is looking to raise as much as $7.5 million to pursue development and regulatory approval.
Endoscopic surgery involves a long, flexible tube with a light and camera equipped with a suturing device to help close incisions and wounds.
Most available tools involve mastering complex movements and fine motor skills. Aurora CEO Brian Edge said the company's device simplifies the process by eliminating the need for doctors to use both hands and crisscrossing tools during surgery.
The potential for Aurora's device could help hundreds of thousands of patients who undergo gastrointestinal endoscopic surgeries, including bariatric weight loss surgery. Challenges for surgeons while suturing in the gastrointestinal tract involve a lack of visualization, the ability to confirm suture depth and the durability of the sutures. The device would be an attachment to an endoscope like a sewing machine for suturing.
Co-founded in 2021 by gastroenterologist Dr. Vivek Kumbhari, professor of medicine and chair of the division of gastroenterology and hepatology at Mayo Clinic Florida, and Dr. Petros Benias, GI clinical operations at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, the initial device is focused on gastrointestinal suturing. However, the company plans to expand this focus to other specialties in the future.
Aurora Medical Technologies was recently named to the Silicon Valley-based Fogarty Innovation Accelerator, a six-month program for early-stage medtech companies.
Aurora hopes the fundraising effort will let it expand product development, get FDA clearance, perform pre-clinical studies, hire more employees and expand its operations over the next two years.
