California-based PowerVision touted another round of fundraising backed by some of the biggest names in medtech.
The company closed the 1st tranche of a Series D financing round $20 million raised, thanks to the support of existing investors Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ). PowerVision expects to raise another $10 million, the company said.
The device maker plans to use the funds to support clinical trials of its FluidVision intraocular lens, including studies supporting a bid for European regulatory approval, which PowerVision hopes to land next year.
The FluidVision implant is poised to be the 1st to restore "True Accommodation," the ability to focus vision at all normal distances, which PowerVision called an "unprecedented achievement."
"While the market for intraocular lens implants continues to grow, exceeding 3 million procedures annually in the U.S. alone, patients who receive a conventional IOL all lose their ability to accommodate – to dynamically adjust focus to see at near and far as well as points in between," according to a press release. "PowerVision’s novel fluid-controlled accommodating intraocular lens technology uses fluid inside its lens in combination with natural muscle forces in the eye to create a shape change in the lens, restoring accommodative ability."
Medtech titan Medtronic in 2011 participated in PowerVision’s $24 million Series C financing round and named Medtronic’s then-medicine & technology senior vice president to PowerVision’s an observer on PowerVision’s board.
