US-based developer of the Coral interventional robotics platform, Moray Medical, has completed its seed round of €4.7 million ($5.7m) with European health tech investor Heal Capital and several other angel investors, including the Angel Physicians Fund. 

The round was led by international MedTech VC 415 CAPITAL and prior investors include leaders in the structural heart and robotics space including Dr Fred St. Goar, inventor of the MitralClip for mitral valve repair.

WHY IT MATTERS

The California-based early-stage robotics company has invented the Coral system, an interventional platform for structural heart disease. Starting in the transcatheter-edge-to-edge repair (TEER) space for Mitral valve repair, Moray Medical aims to reduce access and orientation complexity by leveraging a combination of robotic hardware and computational software innovation. 

The Coral system consists of a "snake-like" robotic catheter that is driven by digitally controlled, microfluidic system. Moray has developed 3D augmented reality software that combines ultrasound imaging data with a simulation of the catheter tip in a real-time digital 3D workspace.

This approach enables interventionists to perform accurate and precise movements, allowing alignment within the heart chambers without disruption to existing interventional workflows.  

Through this system, the company aims to democratise access to transcatheter interventions to the patient population that could benefit from such procedures.

The company will use the funding to continue building on the delivery, navigation, and remote user interaction for structural heart interventions. 

THE LARGER CONTEXT

The EU recently approved an AI technology that can identify people at risk of a heart attack, years before it happens.

In the robotics space, Swiss tech startup Uveya is conducting trials of robots which use ultraviolet light to protect airline passengers from COVID-19.

ON THE RECORD

Dr Christian Weiss, general partner of Heal Capital, said: “Across the landscape of innovation, creating intuitive control systems and transforming usability, are the critical catalysts to enable widespread technology adoption. The Moray Medical team is gathering the best and brightest minds to pioneer this thinking in the robotic structural heart space.”  

Mark Barrish, co-founder of Moray Medical, said: “We are excited to be teaming up with Heal Capital and our other seed investors to validate our clinical robotic TEER therapy system. Digitising the interface to interventional valve repair tools will improve precision and patient outcomes, reduce the learning curve, and expand access to care by enabling thousands of doctors to safely and efficiently repair leaky heart valves for millions of their patients."