Manny Villafaña founded Medical 21 in 2016, marking his latest venture after leading multiple big names in medtech.
He founded CPI, which was acquired by Guidant (then acquired by Boston Scientific) and St. Jude Medical (acquired by Abbott), among others. His track record includes leading significant innovation efforts in pacemakers, heart valves, vascular support and more. Many companies in the Minneapolis-St. Paul medtech hub have roots leading back to entities started by Villafaña.
With Medical 21, Villafaña serves as CEO as the company aims to reshape the future of cardiac bypass surgery. The company develops an artificial artery designed to eliminate the need for blood vessel harvesting. This could help reduce the systemic and painful challenges that traditional coronary artery bypass graft surgery present.
The company’s Maverics graft is a small, flexible tube encased in a nitinol scaffold. It believes the graft could create a more efficient, cost-effective and drastically less invasive procedure.
Medical 21 brought in millions in fundraising rounds 2020 and 2021. Now, the company is looking to go public.
Details of the IPO filing
In the company’s SEC filing, it said it is offering nearly 2.3 million shares of common stock, expected to be priced between $10 and $12 apiece. Medical 21 anticipates net proceeds between approximately $22.8 million and $26.3 million. It intends to use the net proceeds to complete a first-in-human clinical trial and begin an expanded feasibility study.
The company also intends to use funds to continue animal studies, conduct regulatory activities, work on further development efforts and for woring capital and other general corporate purposes.
Following a successful IPO, Medical 21 plans to trade under the “MAVG” ticker. It did not list the intended market on which it intends to trade.
Medical 21 brings the latest medtech IPO into focus
BioVentrix became the latest medtech company to pursue the IPO route last week, following a recent uptick in IPO activity across the industry.
Two of the biggest medtech companies in the world, Medline and Medtronic, recently made IPO news. Medline completed its $8 billion IPO in December 2025. Medtronic’s Diabetes unit, MiniMed, filed its own IPO recently, too as it looks to fully separate from the company.
Total artificial heart maker Picard Medical (maker of the Syncardia system) priced its $17 million IPO at the end of August. It finalized the offering in September of last year.
HeartFlow also closed its IPO in August 2025, with AI-powered spine surgery company Carlsmed completing its IPO in July 2025.
Wearable defibrillator maker Kestra Medical went public in March 2025, not long after automated insulin pump maker Beta Bionics in January completed its $204 million IPO. In 2024, heart valve company Anteris Technologies and neurotech company CeriBell completed IPOs.
