 |
| TriVascular's Ovation system--Courtesy of TriVascular |
California's TriVascular Technologies is betting it can broaden the reach of its FDA-approved stent grafts to treat abdominal aortic aneurysms and has filed plans to raise up to $100 million in an IPO to help accomplish its goal.
Renaissance Capital, the IPO research firm, first broke the news that TriVascular was mulling a jump into the public markets. TriVascular would trade on the Nasdaq under the symbol "TRIV." Pricing terms aren't public yet.
The company's IPO move comes after TriVascular raised $40 million in new equity financing in November, targeted toward expanding marketing efforts for Ovation and Ovation Prime, FDA-approved, minimally invasive stent grafts designed to treat abdominal aortic aneurysms. FDA approval has been in the bag since October 2012, and TriVascular has also had a CE mark since August 2010.
An IPO would help TriVascular accelerate investment in its sales infrastructure, pursue more clinical testing and expand its professional education efforts, according to its S-1 filing. TriVascular's $40 million infusion last fall sparked those initial efforts. A number of impressive investors returned for that initial round, including New Enterprise Associates, Delphi Ventures and Kaiser Permanente Ventures.
 |
| The ovation system after implantation--Courtesy of TriVascular |
Before the IPO filing, TriVascular had raised a whopping $200 million to date. TriVascular launched initially in 1998 and spun off from Boston Scientific ($BSX) in 2008, the regulatory filing explained.
TriVascular booked more than $19.5 million in revenue in 2013, up from just under $5.4 million in 2012. Net losses for 2013 surpassed $50.3 million, according to the company's S-1, versus a $43.3 million net loss in 2012. Some of those losses stem from the cost of transforming from an R&D company into a commercial enterprise, and a global product rollout can be cash-intensive for some time.
Devices that treat aneurysms have become a fairly hot space in recent months. The U.K.'s Lombard Medical, for example, has filed plans for a proposed $80 million IPO to expand the reach of its endovascular aortic repair tool designed to treat aneurysms in the vessel. Last year, Altura Medical in California raised $6 million in new venture financing to advance development of its stent graft to treat abdominal aortic aneurysms. And companies including Johnson & Johnson ($JNJ) and W.L. Gore are marketing similar vascular repair stent grafts.
JPMorgan and Credit Suisse are the joint bookrunners for the proposed IPO, according to Renaissance Capital.
- here's the full S-1 filing
- check out Renaissance Capital's take