Precision oncology startup Prana Thoracic Inc. closed a $3 million series A financing round aimed at advancing its minimally invasive lung tissue excision device for early treatment of lung cancer. The series A funds and a prior $3 million award from the Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas are earmarked for product development and to support first-in-human clinical studies.

Med-tech firms raising money in public or private financings, including: Aiberry, Virax Biolabs.

Med-tech firms raising money in public or private financings, including: Paragonix, Resuture.

Med-tech firms raising money in public or private financings, including: Shoulder Innovations, Siyi Intelligence. 

The France Biotech business association released its latest annual survey covering the health-tech sector in France. According to the 2022 edition of the Panorama, 1,440 med-tech, 880 bio-tech and 4,000 health and artificial intelligence software companies have been surveyed, responsible between them for $1.4 billion in sales revenues and 14,000 direct jobs, not counting the 2,200 new jobs planned for 2023 mainly in R&D, production and support services.

The fundraising environment for startups in med tech is expected to continue to be challenging for at least another year as public markets remain closed and private investors favor companies that have already de-risked their products. One of the major issues in the U.K. and Europe is that the IPO markets are “pretty much shut” and “our public markets aren’t working”, therefore companies are having to rely on private funding, with venture capital being one of those sources, said Robert Tansley, partner, at venture capital fund Cambridge Innovation Capital (CIC).

Visionhealth GmbH will use the €3 million (US$3.2 million) it recently raised in a pre-series A financing to conduct a clinical trial on its digital health app designed to provide more accurate dosing of treatments for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma.