Trauma Care Innovator, CurvaFix, Raises $39 Million

Ten-year-old, Bellevue Washington based CurvaFix, Inc., one of the most interesting innovators of products for trauma surgeons, announced that it has raised an impressive $39 million.

This new capital brings the total amount invested in CurvaFix to date to $60 million. This is the company’s third, or Series C, round of new capital.

The lead investor was Boston-based MVM Partners, whose $1 billion of assets under management and nearly 26 years in business make it one of the senior private equity healthcare investors in the United States.

Other investors in this round were Montreal based Sectoral Asset Management and existing CurvaFix shareholders—Swan Venture Fund, Delta Dental of Washington State, Keiretsu Capital and Tech Coast Angels.

A Curved Implant

The history of the intramedullary nail, of course, is legendary. Allied prisoners of war who’d been injured and held in German prison camps, were treated by Gerhard Kuntscher with an intramedullary internal fixation device for femoral shaft fractures.

After the war, when U.S. orthopedic surgeons saw these nails on their X-rays, they were initially horrified, thinking that these soldiers might have been tortured.

Very quickly, however, the orthopedic world came to recognize that Kuntscher’s innovation was a major advance in trauma care.

But, one problem with every intramedullary fixation device was never solved—they were all straight—which creates mis-matches in the tortuously curved human body.

In 2013, the former division head of orthopedic trauma at the University of British Columbia, Professor Robert Meek, M.D., invented a way to make an intramedullary nail curve—and thereby have a fighting chance to follow the natural contours of a human bone—like, say, the pelvis.

Here are a couple images to demonstrate how CurvaFix’s IM nails work.

Use of Proceeds

Proceeds from the $39 million will be used to introduce CurvaFix’s curved fixation nail to surgeons as a treatment for fragility fractures of the pelvis (FFP). These are depressingly common among elderly populations all over the world.

“CurvaFix’s ability to benefit patients, physicians, and health systems, while simultaneously addressing the undertreated FFP segment makes CurvaFix a rare asset in the crowded world of orthopedics,” said Eric Fritz, MVM Partner.

CEO Transition

In addition to the financing, CurvaFix also announced that its CEO, Steve Dimmer, is leaving the firm (although will still advise) and is passing the baton to the former president and CEO of Trice Medical, a leader in minimally invasive orthopedic procedures, Mark Foster.

Prior to joining Trice Medical, Foster was V.P. of U.S. Sports Medicine Business for Smith & Nephew and also held leadership roles at Boston Scientific.

“I have had the opportunity to observe the successful implementation and adoption of CurvaFix IM Implants in the orthopedic pelvic fracture fixation market, for which Steve has played a pivotal role in taking the company to this point,” Foster said. “I am looking forward to leading the CurvaFix team in scaling CurvaFix’s technology to benefit many more patients, physicians, and payers.”

Steve Dimmer echoed many of Foster’s comments saying, “It has been a privilege to lead CurvaFix from concept through commercialization to where it is today, and I am honored to pass off the reins to Mark for this next exciting phase of CurvaFix’s growth.”

For more information about CurvaFix and its innovative products, here is a link to their website.