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Healthcare robotics developer PolyRemedy Inc. said Monday, Feb. 11, it raised $25 million to advance a wound-care system that combines software, hardware and proprietary nanoscale materials to deliver a cheaper, more effective way of treating chronic tissue ulcers. The four-year-old Mountain View, Calif., company landed Advanced Technology Ventures of Palo Alto, Calif., and IDG Ventures of Boston as lead investors in the round, along with Harris & Harris Group of New York as another new investor, joining first-round backer MedVenture Associates of Emeryville, Calif., to bring total venture investment to $29 million. The deal is expected to support a commercial launch of PolyRemedy's products in 2009. PolyRemedy CEO Daniel Eckert, who joined the company last August, raised the new capital to commercialize a product founder and chief technology officer Oleg Siniaguine conceived to take advantage of established mechanical robotics technology to automate labor-intensive dressing preparation and incorporate proprietary materials into new types of bandages to improve wound treatment. The company has been testing prototypical versions of its product in hospitals and clinics for the last year and has an agreement with a contract manufacturer to begin manufacturing of production units. PolyRemedy's product consists of a touch-screen unit with imaging capabilities to measure wounds and allow care-givers to customize dressings for particular patients. The hardware unit incorporates proprietary software that creates dressing designs based on a substrate of proprietary nanomaterials. The goal is replace traditional gauze dressings with capabilities for creating isolated wet and dry areas to foster healing. The product is aimed at treatment of a large population of patients with chronic wounds caused by diabetes, bedsores or other conditions. Although open wounds caused by chronic conditions are inevitable, managing growth and drainage is crucial in preventing them from worsening. "This is clearly a device that clinicians want, as half a million people are treated with large, disgusting, festering wounds that never heal," said Michael Greeley, a general partner with IDG Ventures. "We have had an investment thesis in the automation of healthcare, and have seen a lot of innovation in dressings and saw the convergence of robotics with new materials." Greeley said PolyRemedy's software allows practitioners to create an image of a patient's wound that automatically produces a sanitary sealed dressing, which can be automatically dispensed for use in a clinical setting or by home-care professionals. The wound can be tracked in the system to customize dressings as wounds change, and also reduces human contact with new dressings. Annette Campbell-White, managing partner with MedVenture, which backed PolyRemedy's $4 million first round, said she was initially attracted to the investment based on Siniaguine's garage-scale prototype, and that the company made quick progress in putting the device into testing with major medical providers. "It is a very unique technology and business model that has the opportunity to create a radical change in the way wounds are treated," Campbell-White said. "They had a very, very successful alpha-trial at a number of leading medical institutions and were able to attract the support of a strong investor base." Eckart would not disclose a valuation for the round, but he said PolyRemedy was pleased to attract IDG and ATV with their expertise in healthcare investments, and Harris & Harris Group, which has a strong record of investment in nanomaterials companies. PolyRemedy used no outside financial adviser for the round and had legal work from Sayre Stevick of Fenwick & West LLP in Palo Alto. Samuel Coates of Cooley Godward Kronish LLP, also in Palo Alto, represented the investors.  Deal Video
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