Xeltis, a medical technology company based in Eindhoven in the Netherlands, has raised €32 million in a Series D2 equity fundraise. The company is pioneering a restorative approach in heart valve replacement and vascular therapies, a technology that stems in part from research at Eindhoven University of Technology. This fundraising round will enable Xeltis to advance its key clinical programs into pivotal trials as it aims to provide patients around the world with access to the world’s most advanced restorative cardiovascular devices.
Swiss-Dutch company Xeltis’ breakthrough technology is focused on restoring the body’s natural cardiovascular functions with numerous potential applications. The company’s proprietary endogenous tissue restoration (ETR) platform utilizes an advanced polymer-based material that triggers the body’s natural healing response to regenerate the patient’s own tissue around it, forming new, living, and long-lasting vessels and valves in the process.
The new round of fundraising has been backed by a syndicate of current and new investors, including Grand Pharma, DaVita Venture Group, EQT Life Sciences, Invest-NL, and other international investors.
Origins in Eindhoven
The company’s devices are vascular grafts and heart valves designed to turn into living valves and vessels by harnessing the body’s natural healing process and by facilitating tissue formation once implanted. Xeltis’ devices are made of supramolecular polymers shaped through a process called electrospinning into a microstructure that allows tissue restoration.
Leveraging the versatility of this technology platform, which can be used to improve many types of implants, Xeltis started the development of three types of cardiovascular implants; namely pulmonary heart valves, coronary artery bypass graft, and hemodialysis access grafts.
This technology has its origins in the research of TU/e several groups. Fourteen years ago, the company emerged following a merger with QTIS, a company founded by TU/e alumnus Martijn Cox. The link between Xeltis and fundamental research at TU/e has always remained. For example, the company is still physically located on the TU/e campus with one of its two headquarters and all R&D activities take place in Eindhoven.
Ground-breaking implants to market
The new investment will help Xeltis move forward in its key clinical programs. These should ultimately help ensure that patients around the world have access to the world's most advanced reparative cardiovascular applications.
Xeltis’ most advanced program, aXess, is a vascular access graft for patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) requiring hemodialysis. Preliminary clinical data from human trials from the company’s ongoing aXess studies have been very encouraging. Over 1.7 million Dutch people have chronic kidney damage and thus have an increased risk of kidney failure and cardiovascular disease. For the group of patients who require dialysis treatment, aXess may lead to a better dialysis implant that will significantly improve these patients' quality of life.
Eliane Schutte, CEO of Xeltis, said: “The strategic support of Grand Pharma and DaVita alongside our existing investor base represents a strong validation of our technology and potential to transform the landscape of cardiovascular surgery. We remain focused on progressing our aXess clinical trials, as well as exploring our next steps in other indications.
“Securing this financing is an important milestone for Xeltis. We are proud to have attracted such high-profile investors to our company and look forward to leveraging their respective insights – from clinical expertise to the product development lifecycle – as we continue on the next phase of our growth.”
Accessible healthcare improvements
Alongside the equity fundraise, Xeltis and Grand Pharma have completed a license deal, covering Greater China, for aXess and other potential hemodialysis products developed under the same technology platform. Under the agreement, Grand Pharma will have exclusive rights to develop, produce, and commercialize these products in Greater China.
Frank Zhou, Grand Pharmaceutical Group CEO, added: “Xeltis is leading the way in addressing the current limitations of access grafts for hemodialysis patients, using a ground-breaking approach based on its world-leading ETR platform. We believe the company’s technology has enormous potential to benefit patients and hospital care systems globally.”
For Invest-NL, the investment in Xeltis fits well with its strategic focus to keep healthcare in the Netherlands accessible and affordable. “Xeltis’ innovative products help improve both the quality of treatment and the quality of life for patients,” said CEO Rinke Zonneveld. “By preventing common complications, significant savings in healthcare costs in the Netherlands are also expected.”
To determine the social benefits of the investment in Xeltis, Invest-NL examined how much in terms of healthcare costs that the innovation might save on the Dutch market and to whom those savings accrue: patient, healthcare provider, or healthcare insurer. It also calculated how many healthy life years the innovation would provide. “By looking at our investments in healthcare from an impact perspective, we take the fundability of healthcare innovations to the next level,” said Zonneveld.
This article was first published on 23 February by Eindhoven University of Technology.
Receive the Funding Newswire each Tuesday, our Policy Bulletin each Thursday, and news about bridging Europe’s east-west innovation gap twice a month in The Widening. 
A unique international forum for public research organisations and companies to connect their external engagement with strategic interests around their R&D system.
