Israeli MedTech startup MitrAssist Medical, which develops a minimally invasive solution for patients with MR (Mitral Regurgitation), announced a $50 million funding round. The investment was led by Centurium Capital and CICC Capital, with CITIC Capital and 6 Dimension Capital also joining in on the round. Existing investors included Chinese pharmaceutical giant Fosun Pharma and insurance company Ping-An. The company also witnessed its valuation increase, based on the current funding round the number jumped up to $300 million.

With millions of MR patients in the U.S. alone, prevented from potential life-saving open heart surgery because they don’t meet the necessary criteria. MitrAssist developed a medical valve that is inserted into a catheter for symptomatic patients with primary or secondary mitral regurgitation, who are at high risk for surgery.

This minimally invasive treatment helps prevent the need for valve replacement, thus potentially preventing life-threatening surgeries, and significantly improving quality of life. "There are now a large number of companies in the world that are developing parallel products to treat the mitral valve problem and technologies are evolving at an increasing rate, but the road to an optimal solution is still long," explains Founder and CEO Gil Naor.

According to MitrAssist, the company plans on recruiting talent to further develop solutions for structural heart diseases. This comes following the launch of human trials, which started about a year ago. Based on the success of the trials the product should be available for launch at scale in about two years.

Gil Naor added that "this is a challenging time to raise funding, but the importance of the product for the care of patients is too high for us to wait for the reality to change. The current fundraising will allow the company to complete the clinical trials to prove the efficacy and safety of the product and reach the Chinese market by the company's planned production date in 2024. "

MitrAssist Medical was founded in 2009 by serial entrepreneur Gil Naor. The company employs a team of 15 people, working out of the over 10,000 square foot offices in Israel. To date, the company has raised $85 million. The funding round was supported by Adv. Yair Geva and Yuval Zilber from law firm Herzog, Fox & Ne'eman.