Sensimed AG (Switzerland) - Jan 2008

unquote
01 January 2008

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Co-lead investors Wellington Partners and Vinci Capital, together with Blue Ocean Ventures, have concluded a CHF 8m first round of funding for Sensimed AG, a manufacturer of medical devices in the field of ophthalmology. Wellington Partners approached the company, having found it through the Swiss initiative ‘CTI Invest’, a platform to present Swiss high-tech start-ups to financial investors. This is the fourth investment from WP III Life Science Fund. Prior to this, the company raised about CHF 3m from various prize, support and research projects, which was a substitute for a seed round. The current round covers the next two years, and the company expects to raise another CHF 4-6m in early 2010. Sensimed has developed a patented system that can significantly improve identification and treatment of glaucoma. According to the World Health Organisation, some 70 million people worldwide suffer from glaucoma, the second-most frequent cause of blindness. Sensimed enables noninvasive, precise and cost-effective continuous 24-hour measurements of intraocular pressure – both in glaucoma patients and in individuals at high risk of the disease. Sensimed’s core product CLS IOP-24 consists of a disposable soft contact lens which embeds a tiny microprocessor and a MEMS sensor and transmits the data to a portable recorder via a telemetry system. The soft contact lens, placed on the eye of the patient by the ophthalmologist, will provide a personal 24-hour profile of the patient’s intraocular pressure paving the way to the development of custom-tailored therapies for patients. The company will be utilising the new funds primarily for commercial production of the CLS IOP-24 system, to obtain regulatory approval and to initiate sales and marketing activities in Europe by late 2008 and in the US by 2009.

Company

Sensimed AG was established in 2003 as a spin-off from the EPFL Technical University in Lausanne, and has now moved to its own offices in downtown Lausanne. At present, the company employs nine people and intends to grow to 12 employees within 2008. Break even is expected for the third quarter of 2010.

People

Professor Erich Schlick, general partner of Wellington’s life science team, will take a seat on the Sensimed supervisory board. Jean-Marc Wismer is CEO of the company.

Advisers

Company - CTI-Invest, Jean-Pierre Vuilleumier (Corporate Finance)Company - Tavernier Tschanz, Jacques Bonvin (Legal)

Sourced from: Deutsche unquote" 95 (Feb 2008)