Calypso Medical Technologies, a developer of technology used for the precise tracking of tumour targets, has completed a USD50m round of venture capital financing, led by Skyline Ventures and Frazier Healthcare Ventures.
Bay City Capital and InterWest Partners were also major investors in the financing.
Proceeds from this financing will be used to support the company’s commercial expansion, both domestically and internationally, as well as the development of products to support new clinical indications and the continued integration of the Calypso System with existing linear accelerators and other radiation therapy technologies.
The company’s platform technology, also known as GPS for the Body, uses miniature implanted Beacon transponders to provide precise, continuous information on the location of the tumour during external beam radiation therapy. Any movement by the patient, including internal movement of the tumour, may cause the radiation to miss its intended target and hit adjacent healthy tissue. In contrast to other tumour targeting solutions, the Calypso System provides continuous tumour position information, objectively and without ionizing radiation, thereby enabling an increase in the radiation delivered to the tumour while reducing radiation misapplied to normal tissue.
“Making sure that a tumour is located where the linear accelerator assumes it to be is critical in external beam radiation therapy,” says John Freund, managing director of Skyline Ventures. “We believe that Calypso’s proprietary GPS for the Body technology represents a fundamental advance in radiation therapy. Calypso allows radiation oncologists to increase the dose delivered to the tumor while decreasing unwanted side effects, for a fraction of the cost of a new linear accelerator.”
“This financing validates the investment community’s continued confidence in the vision of the company, the team, the unique benefits of our product platform and its potential in the marketplace,” says Eric Meier, president and chief executive officer of Calypso Medical. “We are pleased to welcome both Skyline Ventures and InterWest Partners as our newest investors. With the completion of this financing, we are well capitalized and positioned to further expand the presence of our product platform to leading cancer centres around the globe.”
Also participating in this financing round were existing investors Versant Ventures, BB Biotech, Arnerich Massena & Associates, Apothecary Capital, RiverVest Ventures, Merlin Nexus, Early Bird Ventures, Glenview Capital Management, Integra Ventures, AEOW, Kaiser Permanente Ventures, Mosaix Ventures, SB Life Science Ventures, Mitsui & Co. Venture Partners and Rockport Ventures.
