Obalon Therapeutics said it secured $30 million to fund development of its ingestible weight-loss device, the Obalon balloon.
The San Diego, Calif.-based company raised $20 million through a Series D funding round which included Axon Ventures, Bader Sultan & Bros., Mirae Asset Venture Investment, NeoPlux and Striker Asia Opportunities Fund. Existing investors Domain Associates, InterWest Partners, and Okapi Venture Capital also participated.
Obalon said it also received a $10 million term loan from Square 1 Bank. Most of the cash will be used to fund U.S. clinical trials for its novel weight-loss device, an ingestible balloon that is inflated in the stomach to give a patient a sense of “fullness” so they eat less, the company said.
The balloon is administered through a pill and can be removed at a later date through a short endoscopic procedure. The device is intended to be a cheaper, non-surgical, fully-reversible alternative to bariatric surgery, according to a press release.
The Obalon balloon is already approved for use in Europe, Mexico and the Middle East. Obalon said it plans to use some of the funding proceeds to commercialize the product outside the U.S. and develop its product pipeline.
Including the Series D round and Square 1 loan, Obalon said it’s raised $65 million since 2008.