Santé Ventures Leads $6 Million in Series B Funding for EndoStim

Based in St. Louis, Missouri, EndoStim is a startup in the medical devices industry and its product primarily centralizes on minimally invasive devices to treat GERD, which is gastrointestinal and urological neuromuscular disorders. The company announced that it has raised $6 million in series B funding with Santé Ventures leading the funding round. Other investors that joined in this funding round include Prolog Ventures, Vectis Healthcare and Life Sciences Fund II along with returning undisclosed angel investors.

With over 30 million patients suffering from GERD in the United States alone, this is a disorder that is difficult to treat and mainly affects the gastrointestinal and urinary tracts. Currently, GERD is treated by special drugs that are known as PPIs or Proton Pump Inhibiters, but the main problem with these drugs is that they do not attack the primary cause of GERD. EndoStim has a mission to be able to treat GERD with a minimally invasive procedure that can effectively treat GERD and similar related disorders, such as gastro-esophageal reflux and urinary urge incontinence by restoring the physiological function by means of neuro-stimulation.

According to the founder and the Chief Medical Officer of Endostim, Dr. Virender K. Sharma, MD; the procedure that is currently being developed by EndoStim is believed to be able to provide effective treatments for GERD at a much lower cost than the current treatments that use PPIs today.

Proceeds from the funding will be used to continue the clinical trials of EndoStim’s product and pursue the CE mark for marketing in the European Union and the FDA mark of approval for marketing in the United States.

According to the President and CEO of EndoStim, Bevil Hogg, the company is well positioned to disrupt the market in the treatments for GERD and urinary incontinence. This is also backed by the fact that the current PPI drugs that are used for treating severe GERD has FDA warnings about them and the neuro-stimulating abilities of the product that EndoStim is developing can render PPIs obsolete.

Santé Ventures is a vc firm that primarily focuses on the medical and life sciences industries. The firm exclusively invests in early stage companies which are developing medical technologies that have the potential to disrupt the healthcare and life sciences industries and has over $132 million in capital under its management. Some other companies that Santé Ventures portfolio include Bio Stable, Protein Discovery, Spinal Resoration, Terapio, and others.