CardioInsight banks $15M for cardiac mapping tech

Cleveland's CardioInsight has picked up $15 million in financing to support its noninvasive tool for mapping the heart and diagnosing electrical disorders, giving it fresh cash to get the device cleared in the U.S.

The financing, provided by Draper Triangle Ventures, will go toward ECVUE, the company's CE-marked 3-D cardiac mapping system, and CardioInsight figures it'll cover ongoing multicenter clinical studies in Europe and the FDA clearance process in the U.S. To date, the device has been used in more than 800 patients to generate real-time images of the electrical activity on the surface of the heart, and CardioInsight believes its device could become the standard of care in electrophysiology, CEO Patrick Wethington said.

"The ability to complete this transaction is further validation of the strength of the company's clinical experience with its technology, and a representation of the broad potential this platform offers patients suffering from cardiac arrhythmias and other electrical disorders of the heart," Wethington said in a statement.

Unlike the many catheter-based heart mapping tools on the market, ECVUE draws its data noninvasively, using a multisensor electrode sensor vest and images from a CT scan to create 3-D maps of the electrical activity of the heart in a single beat. CardioInsight believes that distinction will help it expand its market share, and, given the boom in demand for electrophysiology, it could well make the company an M&A target.

Over the last year, some of the med tech's biggest players have spent heavily on cardiac mapping tools, with Boston Scientific ($BSX) paying $275 million for rival C.R. Bard's ($BCR) electrophysiology business, and St. Jude Medical ($STJ) betting $321 million on Switzerland's Endosense.

CardioInsight's latest funding follows a $7.5 million Series C closed in 2012, money the company has spent on market-expansion studies overseas.

- read the announcement