Beacon Endoscopic Inc., a stealthy Newton, Mass.-based startup, raised $5 million to complete a series B financing round that will help commercialize its first product, the company said today.
The company has raised about $8 million overall since its inception in December 2008.
MVM Life Science Partners, a London-based VC firm that specializes in biopharma, drug-delivery and medical devices, was the lead investor in the round. As part of the deal Stephen Reeders, the founder of MVM, will join the company’s board of directors.
MVM recently was the lead investor in a $22.5 million round in AccuVein Inc., a Long Island, N.Y.-based company that creates a map of peripheral veins on the skin’s surface with the goal of improving vascular access procedures including blood draw, IV infusion and blood donation.
Beacon was founded more than three years ago with a $3 million angel round, co-founder Brian Tinkham told MassDevice. Tinkham, a former VP of sales and marketing at Muana Kea Technologies, partnered up with Christopher Thompson, a physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, with the goal of creating a company that could “blur the lines between the endoscopic and surgical space and make a difference to patients,” he said.
The company, which employs six people at its Newton headquarters, is looking to double its size by the end of the year as it launches the BNX System, a novel fine needle aspiration system used in endoscopic ultrasound and endoscopic bronchial ultrasound procedures.
The BNX received 510(k) clearance from the FDA back in December and a U.S. launch of the product is expected by the fourth quarter in the U.S. Interestingly, Tinkham said the company will launch the product stateside before going outside the U.S., which has become a bit of a rarity in the device world.
Tinkham told us that the BNX is the first of many products the company is developing for the upper GI and bronchial endoscopy markets.
