Spinal implant company Ranier Technology has tapped investors for £8m to further develop and commercialise its products.
The funding round was led by technology investment bank FirstCapital, whose chief executive is Jason Purcell.
First Capital won praise from Ranier’s chief executive Dr Geoffrey Andrews for the way it handled the process.
“First Capital ran a tight, efficient and entirely complementary process, all the way from developing strategy and producing the marketing materials, through investor selection and management and onto deal negotiation and completion.
“Jason and his team shouldered the bulk of the load throughout, kept me well informed and managed expectations on both sides so that a good deal became inevitable in a reasonable timescale without major management distraction.”
The £8m investment comes from existing investors such as First Ventures, and new ones like Alliance Trust Equity Partners (ATEP).
The money will be used to fund the clinical testing and European launch of the company’s spinal disc product, CAdisc L. In addition, it will enable the company to further develop and test CAdisc C, the cervical spine version
of Ranier's total disc replacement.
The company predicts that the replacement spinal disc market is set to grow to over £1bn a year by 2015 and that its products will be well placed to take a significant proportion of that market.
Andrews added: “We are delighted to have secured this funding from both new and existing high quality investors, and we warmly welcome ATEP as a new investor.
“This investment is strong validation of our CAdisc product technology and the exciting role our products will play in the burgeoning global spinal disc markets.”
© Crimson Business Ltd. 2008
