Valiance and RMM join Second Closing bringing total round to $72.5 million; New Board Member appointed.

JenaValve Technology, Inc., a privately-held, venture-backed developer, manufacturer and marketer of transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) systems for the treatment of aortic valve disease, announced today that it has secured an expansion to its Series C venture round of $10 million increasing the total amount raised in the round from $62.5 million to $72.5 million.

New investors participating in the expansion of the round were UK-based Valiance Asset Management and Belgium-based RMM. Current investors participating in the C round have included Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners, Atlas Venture Fund, NeoMed Management, VI Partners AG and Sunstone Capital A/S, Gimv (GIMB:EN), a publicly traded investment company, Legend Capital, and Omega Funds.

The Company also announced the addition of a new Director and a board observer in conjunction with the financing round. Industry veteran Jan Keltjen was appointed to the JenaValve Board of Directors effective December 30, 2013. In addition, renowned life sciences entrepreneur and financier Rudi Mariën has been appointed an observer to the Board.

"JenaValve continues to build momentum in the European TAVI market with our novel transapical TAVI system," said Helmut J. Straubinger, CEO of JenaValve Technology. "As we continue to work to gain clinical experience with our transfemoral TAVI system and build out international regulatory and commercial programs, we welcome the participation of new world class investors and the governance and experience of Mr. Keltjens and Mr. Mariën as Director and Board observer, respectively."

Keltjens is the Chairman and CEO of Steering Brain Stimulation (Sapiens), a medical device company pioneering brain stimulation products. He has a strong track record in the medical device sector and over 30 years of management experience, including the role of President and CEO of Endosense SA, which was acquired by St. Jude Medical in August 2013. He has also worked as CEO and/or Chairman in a number of medical device companies worldwide, including CryoCath Technologies Inc., Montreal, Canada (acquired in 2008 by Medtronic), AngioDynamics Inc, Albany, New York, USA, and Surpass Medical Ltd., Tel Aviv, Israel/Sunrise, Florida, USA (acquired in 2012 by Stryker). 

Rudi Mariën was co-founder, reference shareholder and Chairman of Innogenetics, and has been the founder, shareholder and Managing Director of several clinical reference laboratories. Currently, he is Managing Director of Barc NV, a leading international centralized clinical laboratory exclusively dedicated to pharmaceutical studies. He has different mandates as CEO and Director at Barc USA, Barc Inc, Barc RSA and Laboraco BVBA. He is Vice President of Cerba European Lab and President and CEO of Gengest Bvba and Biovest ComVa. Through his management company, Gengest BVBA, he has Board mandates in different public and private biotech companies.