French medtech startup BCV bags €6M: Know more 

Paris-based BCV (Basecamp Vascular), a medtech company, announced on Wednesday that it has secured €6M in a Series A round of financing led by New York-based Forepont Capital Partners. 

Others, including NTI, MEDCO, and existing French investors, participated in the round. 

This Series A funding brings the total amount raised since inception to €13M. 

The French company’s Series A remains open until March 31st, 2024.

The newly secured funds will accelerate the development of BCV’s active mechatronic guidewires, covering the entire process from manufacturing to market launch. 

The company has already established a manufacturing plant in Reims to ensure in-house manufacturing and support R&D efforts focused on miniaturisation.

“This round of financing will enable BCV to progress toward FDA and CE mark approval,” adds Thierry Col, CEO, BCV. “Forepont and NTI will accelerate BCV’s development first in the US market thanks to a premier network in endovascular access,” concludes Thierry Col.

BCV: Improving endovascular access & navigation

BCV was co-founded in 2016 by Dr. Raphaël Blanc, Jean-Baptiste Cazeneuve, Jérôme Szewczyk, and Michel Boulaire as a spin-off from the Intelligent Robotic Systems Laboratory (ISIR) at Sorbonne University and the Rothschild Foundation Hospital.

The company has developed a mechatronic shape memory alloy guidewire, providing practitioners with direct access and navigation during minimally invasive endovascular procedures. 

This patented innovation involves an actuable guidewire controlled by a smart handle and a generator.

The company’s system incorporates shape-memory alloy technology, allowing for distal tip control, which enhances practitioners’ precision and demonstrates superior performance compared to existing advanced actuation technologies. 

This steerable mechatronic guidewire is designed to enhance safety, reduce procedure time, and produce better outcomes, providing support during critical interventions performed for stroke or artery diseases.

The company achieved its first-in-human clinical trial in 2022 at Rothschild Foundation Hospital in Paris and filed a pre-submission application with the FDA.

“Our technology, applied to a guidewire, will be a disruptive change in minimally invasive procedures improving patients’ outcomes,” says Raphaël Blanc, M.D., Chairman and co-founder of BCV.

The investor

Based out of New York, Forepont Capital Partners is a healthcare and life science venture capital firm with a strong presence in Europe. 

The VC invests in early-stage companies whose science and technology are intended to positively impact the lives of patients. 

Forepont offers scientific, technological, financial, and operational support to enhance portfolio company performance by leveraging its talents with its know-how and global ecosystem.

“Forepont is proud to lead BCV’s series A raise to support the advancement of BCV’s superior technology that has already been endorsed by over 100 international interventional radiology experts in the US and Europe,” says Frederic Batoua, a Partner at Forepont Capital partners.