HTGF et al. sell Symetis to Boston Scientific for $435m

High-tech Gründerfonds became a shareholder when its portfolio company Middle Peak was acquired by Symetis. Other VCs that have provided venture capital to Symetis include Swisscom ventures, Kreaxi, Biomedpartners, Endeavour vision, Stage capital, Novartis venture fund, Truffle capital, Vinci Capital, Wellington Partners, Aravis and Gaia.

Boston Scientific will acquire Symetis for an all-cash, up-front payment. Symetis had previously launched an IPO on Euronext Paris which has been halted as a result of the acquisition. The aim of the IPO was to expand out of Europe, which will now be achieved with the company's new owners.

The two companies have developed complementary heart valve technologies which should now be available to a larger number of patients.

The transaction is expected to close during the second quarter of 2017, subject to customary closing conditions.

Previous funding
Symetis has raised six rounds of VC funding since 2004. The first round of €7.74m was backed by Aravis, Biomedpartners, Gaia, Novartis and Truffle Capital. An extra €2.53m was then invested by the same consortium minus Gaia in October 2008. The same four then participated in a larger round of €15.09m joined by Kreaxi, Novartis and Vinci Capital in July 2009. A yet larger round of €18.63m backed by many of the same investors plus Endeavour Vision and Stage Capital took place in 2010. Since then, two rounds of undisclosed size have been led in September 2011 by Swisscom Ventures and May 2012 by Endeavour Vision.

Company
Founded in 2001, Symetis is an Ecublens-based medical technology company specialising in the development, manufacturing and marketing of percutaneous heart valve replacement products for the treatment of severe cardiac valve conditions. The company has sustained a compound annual growth rate of 55% since 2012 and generated revenues of CHF 38.4m in 2016. In addition to Ecublens, it has offices in Düsseldorf and Belo Horizonte.

People
Symetis – Khaled Bahi (CFO); Jacques Essinger (CEO).
High-tech Gründerfonds – Michael Brandkamp (managing director).

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