Israeli medical device company, Butterfly Medical Ltd, has raised $7 million in a Series B round led by Philadelphia-based New Rhein Healthcare Investors.

Butterfly Medical successfully completed the enrolment of 49 patients to its multi-centre clinical study testing its implantable device for patients suffering from benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) or an enlarged prostate.

Follow-up results support initiating a pivotal registration study. The Series B round was raised on the back of encouraging feasibility stage (initial safety and efficacy) data.

Initial institutional support and funding for Butterfly was provided by Alon Medtech Ventures, a leading Israeli medical device venture capital firm. New Rhein managing partners, Greg Parekh and Ivan Gergel, will join the Butterfly Board of Directors.

WHAT IT DOES 

Butterfly has designed an anatomically shaped nitinol implant, which is positioned in the prostatic urethra in order to open the space and relieve BPH symptoms. The device comes in multiple sizes, and, unlike more invasive approaches, does not require any resection, cutting, or burning of prostatic tissue. The procedure can be completed in under six minutes in the urologist’s office.

In clinical trials, the device showed a lasting effect on quality of life of patients suffering from BPH symptoms with improvement in IPSS (International Prostate Symptoms Score- symptoms severity questionnaire) observed as early as two weeks after the procedure.

WHAT IT’S FOR

Butterfly Medical will apply the proceeds, $5 million of which was invested by New Rhein funds and $2 million of which was invested by the company’s existing stockholders, to fund its pivotal US clinical trial and open US headquarters. 

MARKET SNAPSHOT

Earlier this year, Israeli healthcare artificial intelligence (AI) startup, Agamon announced a $3 million seed round, led by MMC Ventures, with the participation of InHealth Ventures, Seedcamp, and Bayer G4A.

Meanwhile, Israel-based speech recognition technology company, Voiceitt, successfully raised $10 million in a Series A round which closed on 30 June 2020.

Israel-based startup specialising in AI vision care, NovaSight, finalised its round A financing in July, totalling $8 million.

ON THE RECORD

Idan Geva, CEO of Butterfly Medical, said: “We don’t believe in a one-size fits all approach to BPH treatment. We believe we’ve developed a simpler, safer device to complement existing therapies and offer a less invasive alternative to patients.

“With this financing, and our new partnership with the New Rhein team, we can accelerate our US clinical trials and initiate commercialisation in a market eager for simple and safe solutions for this medical condition.”

Butterfly Board chairman and Alon Medtech founder, Shimon Eckhouse, said: “Butterfly is an excellent example of an entrepreneurial company that has been able to efficiently develop and clinically test an innovative product to address a gap in medical treatment. New Rhein’s complementary support is a positive indication of Butterfly’s results and the size of the market.”