PALO ALTO, California and MUNICH, June 26, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

Middle Peak Medical, a development-stage medical device company that will commercialize a novel technology for treating mitral valve disease, has raised $8.5M in a Series A financing. The round was co-led by healthcare investment specialists Wellington Partners and Seventure Partners, along with seed investor High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH (HTGF).

The proceeds will provide capital for further development of Middle Peak's unique technology for treating mitral valve disease. Following the financing, Middle Peak is establishing some of its clinical and regulatory operations in Europe. The Company's R&D center will remain in Palo Alto.

Michael D. Lesh, MD, CEO and co-founder of the Company, commented: "We are delighted to partner with Wellington, Seventure, and HTGF. They bring tremendous value to our operations. Our internal financing allowed us to show strong proof-of-concept of the Middle Peak mitral implant. We now have the resources to accelerate pre-clinical and clinical development. Middle Peak intends to bring significant benefit to patients with mitral regurgitation, the most common valvular heart disease."

Wellington Partners' Regina Hodits, PhD added: "Middle Peak's strong management team, including Dr. Lesh and the co-founder Alex Khairkhahan, have created a truly novel, elegant device. We have evaluated a number of technologies in the mitral space and have not seen anything comparable. I look forward to working with them to take the company to the next level."

Seventure venture partner Robert Schier, PhD noted that: "Middle Peak has a technology that addresses an important unmet need in the treatment of cardiac disease. This is a major advance. We have every confidence in Dr. Lesh and Mr. Khairkhahan, who have previously brought a number of medical devices from conception to successful market entry."

Matthias Dill, partner at HTGF commented that: "The market for the Middle Peak device is enormous. Middle Peak's strong intellectual property position is another reason we found them a compelling investment opportunity."

About Middle Peak Medical

Middle Peak Medical is a privately held medical device company, focused on developing a break-through device to meet unmet needs in the treatment of mitral valve disease. The Company's technology has application in both minimally invasive cardiac surgery, and catheter-based percutaneous intervention. Mitral regurgitation (MR) is the most common form of heart valve disease in the U.S. and Europe, with moderate to severe disease affecting 1-2% of the population. Normally, the mitral valve closes when the main pumping chamber of the heart, the left ventricle, contracts, preventing oxygen-carrying blood from flowing backward into the left atrium. MR occurs when the valve fails to seal completely. Patients with MR can experience difficulty breathing, weakness, heart failure, and even death.

Middle Peak Medical currently has operating entities in Germany and the United States.

About Wellington Partners

Wellington Partners is among the most successful pan-European Venture Capital firms. With more than EUR800 million under management and offices in Munich, London and Zurich, Wellington Partners invests in start-up companies throughout Europe that have the potential to become global leaders in the areas of digital media, resource efficiency and life sciences.

Since 1998, Wellington Partners has invested in more than 100 companies, including publicly listed firms like Actelion, Evolva, Wavelight (acquired by Alcon) and Xing, as well as privately held companies like AyoxxA, Grandis (acquired by Novartis), immatics, implanet, invendo medical, mtm laboratories (acquired by Roche), Oxagen, Oxford Immunotec, Quanta, Sapiens, Sensimed, Supersonic Imagine, Symetis and Spotify. For further information, please visit http://www.wellington-partners.com.

About Seventure Partners

As one of the leading venture capital firms in Europe, Seventure manages more than EUR500 million and, since 1997, invests in innovative businesses with high growth potential in software, internet, hardware & telecom in France and Germany, and in life sciences throughout Europe. In life sciences, we invest in biotech & pharmaceuticals, medical devices, industrial biotech, cleantech, and microbiota, nutrition & lifestyle. We also consider investments in diagnostics, biomarkers, drug delivery systems, environment, bio-energy, and services. A typical investment ranges from EUR500,000 to EUR5 million per round, up to EUR10 million per company, from early to later stage. Seventure is a subsidiary of Natixis, the corporate, investment management and financial services arm of Groupe BPCE, the second-largest French bank.

About High-Tech Gründerfonds Management

High-Tech Gruenderfonds invests in young, high potential high-tech start-ups. The seed financing provided is designed to enable start-ups to take an idea through prototyping and to market launch. Typically, High-Tech Gruenderfonds invests EUR500,000 in the seed stage, with the potential for up to a total of EUR2 million per portfolio company in follow-on financing. Investors in this public/private partnership include the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, the KfW Banking Group, as well as strategic corporate investors including ALTANA, BASF, B. Braun, Robert Bosch, CEWE Color, Daimler, Deutsche Post DHL, Deutsche Telekom, Evonik, Lanxess, media + more venture Beteiligungs GmbH & Co. KG, METRO, Qiagen, RWE Innogy, SAP, Tengelmann and Carl Zeiss. High-Tech Gruenderfonds has about EUR 573.5 million under management in two funds (EUR272 million HTGF I, EUR301.5 million HTGF II). For further information, visit http://www.htgf.de.

For further information, please contact: info@middlepeakmedical.com

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SOURCE Middle Peak Medical