Capstan Medical raises $110M ahead of heart robot’s first-in-human procedure

By Jim Hammerand | December 12, 2024

Capstan Medical Inc. yesterday said it has raised $110 million in an oversubscribed Series C round. The Santa Cruz, Calif.-based company said the latest round brings its total funding to more than $150 million.

“We had such strong internal support for giving us this runway for the next phase of the business that we only added a single investor into the mix for this round, which was fantastic,” Maggie Nixon, CEO of Capstan Medical, told MassDevice. “The intent is to fuel this next wave of innovation.”

Capstan Medical is developing a surgical robot and catheter-delivered implants for minimally invasive percutaneous replacement of mitral and tricuspid heart valves. The startup said it plans to conduct its first in-human mitral valve procedure by early next year. It plans to follow with an in-human procedure for its tricuspid valve sometime in 2025.

Nixon added that Capstan Medical remains on track to start a pivotal trial of its mitral system in 2026 and submit it to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for review as soon as 2028.

Series C to support in-human trials

Eclipse led Capstan Medical’s Series C round, and Yu Galaxy and Intuitive Ventures participated. All three had previously invested in the company. Joining them was first-time investor Gideon Strategic Partners.

“We’re at an inflection point where robotics will play a consequential role in delivering life-saving solutions to millions of patients across the world,” stated Justin Butler, a partner at Eclipse. “Capstan is at the forefront of this wave with their robotic solutions for structural heart disease.”

Intuitive Ventures is the venture investment arm of Intuitive Surgical, a leading surgical robotics developer and manufacturer. Intuitive is also where Nixon first worked with Capstan Medical founder and Chief Technology Officer Dan Wallace.

The Intuitive Ventures funding is not a strategic investment or a business-development investment by Intuitive Surgical, said Nixon.

“This is purely a financial investment on their front,” she said. “It is independent. This is not a structured deal.”

“We already had fuel in the tank to get us through this first-in-human [procedure]. This gets us all the way through that pre-pivotal phase and set up to move into pivotal trials for our mitral device,” Nixon noted. “This also lets us — as we touched on back in the spring — take our tricuspid concept off the shelf and really move that forward. We’re targeting trying to get that tricuspid implant to first-in-human this next year as well.”

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Capstan Medical focuses on mitral valves

Capstan Medical is targeting the world’s leading cause of death — heart disease — with a less-invasive alternative than open-heart surgery to replace diseased mitral and tricuspid heart valves. Many patients are not eligible for open-heart procedures or even catheter-based procedures.

“Our focus is absolutely mitral,” explained Nixon. “Getting that tricuspid through the preclinical phase is is going to be fantastic as well, [but] our mitral program is our No. 1 priority, and if we ever got into any sort of resourcing conflict, our mitral program would take precedence.”

“So we are looking to do [a tricuspid first-in-human] in the next 12 to 15 months, and this raise fuels some of that next implant in our portfolio,” she continued.

Executive appointments part of growth strategy

In October, MassDevice reported that finance executive Brian King had left Intuitive Surgical to join Occam Labs, the medical device incubator that launched Capstan Medical.

“We’re maturing the business right now,” Nixon said. “We brought Brian King in on the finance side … and we’re in final rounds of interviews on a regulatory head as well.”

“This raise just really shows the level of support and momentum around what we’re doing,” she added. “That vote of confidence is incredible. It’s our job to execute.”

Editors’ notes: This article was syndicated from The Robot Report sibling site MassDevice. Read more of the interview with Nixon at sibling site Medical Design & Outsourcing.