GE-backed InSightec gets $59M for noninvasive surgical tool, adds ex-Mako CEO to board

Israeli medical device company InSightec closed a $59 million Series D round led by major institutional investors in the U.S. and Asia. It's left room for existing shareholders to invest an additional $3.5 million through the end of January.

In a bid for a higher profile for the startup, Dr. Maurice Ferré joined the company's board as executive chairman. He was most recently the chairman and CEO of Mako Surgical, a robotic surgical tools company that he founded in 2004, led through an IPO in 2008 and sold to Stryker ($SYK) in late 2013 for $1.65 billion. The former InSightec board chairman, Tom Gentile, was appointed recently as the president and COO of GE Capital; he will remain as a board member.

"Maurice's commercial and clinical skills will help Insightec achieve widespread awareness and commercial adoption of our technology," said InSightec CEO Dr. Kobi Vortman in a statement.

ExAblate Neuro--Courtesy of InSightec

InSightec was founded in 1999 by GE Healthcare and Elbit Medical Imaging to bring to market its MRI-guided, noninvasive, focused ultrasound ExAblate surgical technology. It's spent almost $200 million on research and development. That could make any potential IPO valuation tough and mean early investors get crushed--since the startup said in June that this financing values the company at $200 million.

The company's ExAblate is marketed in the EU to treat a number of conditions under a CE mark. In the U.S., it's approved to treat symptomatic uterine fibroids and for pain palliation of bone metastases when radiation is not an option.

It recently completed enrollment on a U.S. pivotal trial of the neurosurgical indication of essential tremor, a nervous system disorder that causes rhythmic shaking that occurs in older adults and is sometimes confused with Parkinson's disease.

ExAblate Neuro is already CE marked in essential tremor, Parkinson's disease and neuropathic pain. Clinical testing is ongoing for brain tumors, while stroke and drug delivery applications are in preclinical research.

InSightec investors include GE Healthcare, Elbit Imaging, York Capital Management, GEOC Hengtong Investment Limited Partnership and MediTech Advisors.

- here is the release

Special Report: FierceMedicalDevices' 2013 Fierce 15 - InSightec