Houston health tech startup secures $20M series A, NIH grant amid clinical trials

fresh funding

VenoStent has raised additional funding. Image courtesy of VenoStent

A clinical-stage Houston health tech company with a novel therapeutic device has raised venture capital funding and secured a grant from the National Institutes of Health.

VenoStent Inc., which is currently in clinical trials with its bioabsorbable perivascular wrap, announced the closing of a $20 million series A round co-led by Good Growth Capital and IAG Capital Partners. The two Charleston, South Carolina-based firms also led VenoStent's 2023 series A round that closed last year at $16 million.

Additionally, the company secured a $3.6 million Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II Grant from NIH, which will help fund its multi-center, 200-patient, randomized controlled trial in the United States.

Tim Boire, VenoStent CEO and co-founder, describes 2024 so far as "a momentous year" so far for his company.

"In the span of a few months, we initiated our first clinical sites, enrolled the first patients in our large RCT and closed our Series A with Norwest," Boire says in a news release. "We also received the NIH grant, which enables us to execute our trial with the highest degree of quality and rigor to make it as scientifically robust and impactful to patients as possible.

'Each of these are major company milestones that collectively represent many years of intensive and fruitful R&D and collaboration," he continues. "These recent milestones will propel our company forward to an exciting next phase."

Tim Boire is the CEO and co-founder of VenoStent. Photo via LinkedIn

The company's innovation, the SelfWrap, goes around arteriovenous (AV) access sites at the time of AV fistula creation surgery. The device is intended "to accelerate the usability and increase the durability of the fistula sites for chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients requiring hemodialysis," reads the release, "mimicking the arterial environment in veins, which experience a 10x increase in pressure and flow during AV creation and causes the veins to become unusable in dialysis."

Along with the investment, VenoStent announced two new board observers. Norwest General Partner Dr. Zack Scott and Investor Dr. Ehi Akhirome are bringing their expertise to the growing company.

"Norwest's investment is tremendous validation for VenoStent, and we are thrilled to have both Zack and Ehi joining the company's board," VenoStent COO and Co-Founder Geoffrey Lucks adds in the release. "Zack and Ehi have extensive knowledge in our space, and their added value will match the capital and cache of Norwest dollar-for-dollar."

Last year at the same time VenoStent announced its last funding round, the SelfWrap was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to begin its U.S. Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) study.

"Over half a million people in the U.S. rely on hemodialysis to survive and require an arteriovenous fistula creation surgery in order to receive the treatment. However, the AV fistula procedure has a one-year failure rate of more than 60 percent, which significantly impacts patients' survival rates and quality of life," Scott says in the release. "VenoStent's groundbreaking technology for AV fistula formation, SelfWrap, has the potential to significantly improve these odds. We look forward to working with the VenoStent team as it proves the efficacy of this breakthrough technology in order to improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of CKD patients."

Last summer, Boire told InnovationMap on the Houston Innovators Podcast that he's looking to launch the product in 2026.

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Trending Houston startup news from the week included a TMC-based startup raising money. Photo courtesy of TMC

Houston startup trending news includes funding, M&A updates

what's trending

Editor's note: Another week has come and gone, and it's time to round up the top headlines from the past few days. Trending Houston tech and startup news on InnovationMap included an exit for a Houston edtech startup, fresh funding for a med device company, and more.

Houston workforce training startup acquired by California company

Ampersand has been acquired by a college loan and student services provider based in San Diego. Photo ampersandpro.com

A Houston startup, founded to streamline and optimize the intern-company relationship, has been acquired by a student loan and services provider.

San Diego, California-based Ascent, a collegiate student loan company that also provides student support services, announced it has acquired Ampersand, a software platform that provides skills training to young professionals. The news was announced today, July 27, coinciding with National Intern Day.

With the acquisition, Allie Danziger, co-founder and CEO of Ampersand, joins Ascent as senior vice president and general manager of student success. She will lead the company's educational program that focuses on equipping students with skills from education to employment.

“Since launching Ampersand in 2020, we’ve received constant praise from employers, students, and universities on the real education-to-employment skills gap we are filling,” says Danziger in a news release. “I take immense pride in the fact that we’ve helped thousands of students enter the workforce with confidence, earn higher salaries, and get set on the right career path. I know joining the Ascent team will unlock even more opportunities for our combined companies, expanding our collective impact to millions of students and job seekers.” Continue reading.

Houston health tech startup secures $16M series A, prepares for first U.S. clinical trials

A Houston startup based out of the TMC Innovation Factory has announced funding and upcoming trials. Photo courtesy of TMC

Fueled by fresh funding in the bank, a medical device startup has announced upcoming trials.

VenoStent, Inc., a company developing an innovative tool to improve outcomes for hemodialysis patients, has closed $16 million in a series A round of financing. Two Charleston, South Carolina-based firms — Good Growth Capital and IAG Capital Partners — led the round.

The company also announced it received Investigational Device Exemption from the FDA for its United States clinical trial, SAVE-FistulaS.

“Our mission at VenoStent is to improve the quality and length of life of dialysis patients. On the heels of our very promising results in several preclinical studies and a 20-patient feasibility study that led to our Breakthrough Designation last year, this recent IDE approval is perhaps our biggest milestone to date," Tim Boire, CEO of VenoStent, says in a news release. "We now enter an exciting new epoch in our company’s development that we believe will ultimately result in FDA Approval and vastly improve the quality and length of life for patients." Continue reading.

10+ can't-miss Houston business and innovation events for August

Check out these workshops, networking events, conferences, and other goings on in Houston this month. Photo via Getty Images

From networking meetups to startup showcases, August has a smorgasbord of opportunities for Houston innovators.

Here's a roundup of events you won't want to miss out on so mark your calendars and register accordingly. Continue reading.

Houston startup advances in Chevron's unique business accelerator

Currently, methane leak detection requires human evaluation. With this innovative new company's tech, this process can be automated. Photo via Getty Images

A Houston startup that is developing a technology to detect methane leaks has moved on to phase two in Chevron's unique business accelerator.

Aquanta Vision Technologies, a Houston-based climate-tech startup, was selected to participate in the scale-up phase of Chevron Studio, a Houston program that matches entrepreneurs with technologies to turn them into businesses. Aquanta's computer vision software completely automates the identification of methane in optical gas imaging, or OGI. The technology originated from Colorado State University and CSU STRATA Technology Transfer.

Babur Ozden, a tech startup entrepreneur, along with Marcus Martinez, the lead inventor and Dan Zimmerle, co-inventor and director of METEC at CSU Energy Institute, came up with the technology to identify the presence and motion of methane in live video streams. Currently, this process of identifying methane requires a human camera operator to interpret the images. This can often be unreliable in the collection of emissions data. Continue reading.

New Houston investment firm closes $32M fund, announces 3 portfolio companies

A new Houston firm has closed its inaugural fund to invest in health tech. Photo via Getty Images

A new firm has emerged to invest in early-stage tech bio, artificial intelligence, and life sciences.

Modi Ventures announced its inaugural fund, Tech+Bio Fund I, closed at $32 million, an oversubscribed amount. The fund targets companies "shaping the future of humanity," reads a press release from Modi.

“Investing in next generation technologies has always been very lucrative,” says Sahir Ali, general partner of Modi Ventures, in the release. “We are entering an era of software writing software (artificial intelligence), technology that can unravel our individual genetic makeup (gene sequencing), biotech that can reprogram our genes (gene editing), and a fundamental change in how medicine is practiced by leveraging all of the above (precision medicine).

"Tech Bio companies will revolutionize multiple trillion dollar industries, providing early investors with potential for great returns,” he continues. Continue reading.

A Houston startup based out of the TMC Innovation Factory has announced funding and upcoming trials. Photo courtesy of TMC

Houston health tech startup secures $16M series A, prepares for first U.S. clinical trials

money moves

Fueled by fresh funding in the bank, a medical device startup has announced upcoming trials.

VenoStent, Inc., a company developing an innovative tool to improve outcomes for hemodialysis patients, has closed $16 million in a series A round of financing. Two Charleston, South Carolina-based firms — Good Growth Capital and IAG Capital Partners — led the round.

The company also announced it received Investigational Device Exemption from the FDA for its United States clinical trial, SAVE-FistulaS.

“Our mission at VenoStent is to improve the quality and length of life of dialysis patients. On the heels of our very promising results in several preclinical studies and a 20-patient feasibility study that led to our Breakthrough Designation last year, this recent IDE approval is perhaps our biggest milestone to date," Tim Boire, CEO of VenoStent, says in a news release. "We now enter an exciting new epoch in our company’s development that we believe will ultimately result in FDA Approval and vastly improve the quality and length of life for patients."

VenoStent's novel therapeutic medical device is a bioabsorbable wrap. Image courtesy of VenoStent

VenoStent's series A will fund the trial, expand manufacturing capabilities, and more. The company is targeting the more than 800,000 people in the U.S. with end-stage renal disease. Currently, more than half of the surgeries performed to initiate hemodialysis fail within a year. VenoStent's novel therapeutic medical device is a bioabsorbable wrap that reduces vein collapse by providing mechanical support and promoting outward vein growth.

“This trial is designed to provide the highest level of clinical evidence. We’re excited to be in this position to treat the first patients in the United States with this technology, and demonstrate the safety and efficacy of our device,” continues Boire in the release.

Per the release, the company is aiming for FDA Approval and be the first-to-market device to improve hemodialysis access surgery.

“We’re extremely pleased to be partnering with VenoStent on this critical mission. This company and technology are poised for commercial success to address a critical, unmet need,” says Bob Crutchfield, operating partner at Good Growth Capital, in the release.

The TMC Venture Fund also contributed to the series A investment round, along with SNR, Baylor Angel Network / Affinity Fund, Creative Ventures, Cowtown Angels, Alumni Ventures, and other notable angel investors. Past investors in VenoStent include KidneyX, National Science Foundation, National Institute of Health, Y Combinator, Health Wildcatters, and the Texas Halo Fund.

“VenoStent’s data and traction to date is impressive and gives us a lot of confidence in their continued success. We look forward to helping them get this Breakthrough product to market and help patients that are in dire need of this innovative technology,” says Joel Whitley, partner at IAG Capital Partners, in the release.

Tim Boire is the CEO of VenoStent. Photo via LinkedIn

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MD Anderson makes AI partnership to advance precision oncology

AI Oncology

Few experts will disagree that data-driven medicine is one of the most certain ways forward for our health. However, actually adopting it comes at a steep curve. But what if using the technology were democratized?

This is the question that SOPHiA GENETICS has been seeking to answer since 2011 with its universal AI platform, SOPHiA DDM. The cloud-native system analyzes and interprets complex health care data across technologies and institutions, allowing hospitals and clinicians to gain clinically actionable insights faster and at scale.

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center has just announced its official collaboration with SOPHiA GENETICS to accelerate breakthroughs in precision oncology. Together, they are developing a novel sequencing oncology test, as well as creating several programs targeted at the research and development of additional technology.

That technology will allow the hospital to develop new ways to chart the growth and changes of tumors in real time, pick the best clinical trials and medications for patients and make genomic testing more reliable. Shashikant Kulkarni, deputy division head for Molecular Pathology, and Dr. J. Bryan, assistant professor, will lead the collaboration on MD Anderson’s end.

“Cancer research has evolved rapidly, and we have more health data available than ever before. Our collaboration with SOPHiA GENETICS reflects how our lab is evolving and integrating advanced analytics and AI to better interpret complex molecular information,” Dr. Donna Hansel, division head of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at MD Anderson, said in a press release. “This collaboration will expand our ability to translate high-dimensional data into insights that can meaningfully advance research and precision oncology.”

SOPHiA GENETICS is based in Switzerland and France, and has its U.S. offices in Boston.

“This collaboration with MD Anderson amplifies our shared ambition to push the boundaries of what is possible in cancer research,” Dr. Philippe Menu, chief product officer and chief medical officer at SOPHiA GENETICS, added in the release. “With SOPHiA DDM as a unifying analytical layer, we are enabling new discoveries, accelerating breakthroughs in precision oncology and, most importantly, enabling patients around the globe to benefit from these innovations by bringing leading technologies to all geographies quickly and at scale.”

Houston company plans lunar mission to test clean energy resource

lunar power

Houston-based natural resource and lunar development company Black Moon Energy Corporation (BMEC) announced that it is planning a robotic mission to the surface of the moon within the next five years.

The company has engaged NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and Caltech to carry out the mission’s robotic systems, scientific instrumentation, data acquisition and mission operations. Black Moon will lead mission management, resource-assessment strategy and large-scale operations planning.

The goal of the year-long expedition will be to gather data and perform operations to determine the feasibility of a lunar Helium-3 supply chain. Helium-3 is abundant on the surface of the moon, but extremely rare on Earth. BMEC believes it could be a solution to the world's accelerating energy challenges.

Helium-3 fusion releases 4 million times more energy than the combustion of fossil fuels and four times more energy than traditional nuclear fission in a “clean” manner with no primary radioactive products or environmental issues, according to BMEC. Additionally, the company estimates that there is enough lunar Helium-3 to power humanity for thousands of years.

"By combining Black Moon's expertise in resource development with JPL and Caltech's renowned scientific and engineering capabilities, we are building the knowledge base required to power a new era of clean, abundant, and affordable energy for the entire planet," David Warden, CEO of BMEC, said in a news release.

The company says that information gathered from the planned lunar mission will support potential applications in fusion power generation, national security systems, quantum computing, radiation detection, medical imaging and cryogenic technologies.

Black Moon Energy was founded in 2022 by David Warden, Leroy Chiao, Peter Jones and Dan Warden. Chiao served as a NASA astronaut for 15 years. The other founders have held positions at Rice University, Schlumberger, BP and other major energy space organizations.

Houston co. makes breakthrough in clean carbon fiber manufacturing

Future of Fiber

Houston-based Mars Materials has made a breakthrough in turning stored carbon dioxide into everyday products.

In partnership with the Textile Innovation Engine of North Carolina and North Carolina State University, Mars Materials turned its CO2-derived product into a high-quality raw material for producing carbon fiber, according to a news release. According to the company, the product works "exactly like" the traditional chemical used to create carbon fiber that is derived from oil and coal.

Testing showed the end product met the high standards required for high-performance carbon fiber. Carbon fiber finds its way into aircraft, missile components, drones, racecars, golf clubs, snowboards, bridges, X-ray equipment, prosthetics, wind turbine blades and more.

The successful test “keeps a promise we made to our investors and the industry,” Aaron Fitzgerald, co-founder and CEO of Mars Materials, said in the release. “We proved we can make carbon fiber from the air without losing any quality.”

“Just as we did with our water-soluble polymers, getting it right on the first try allows us to move faster,” Fitzgerald adds. “We can now focus on scaling up production to accelerate bringing manufacturing of this critical material back to the U.S.”

Mars Materials, founded in 2019, converts captured carbon into resources, such as carbon fiber and wastewater treatment chemicals. Investors include Untapped Capital, Prithvi Ventures, Climate Capital Collective, Overlap Holdings, BlackTech Capital, Jonathan Azoff, Nate Salpeter and Brian Andrés Helmick.

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This article originally appeared on our sister site, EnergyCapitalHTX.com.

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