Advanced Cardiac Therapies lands $45m round led by new PE shop Ajax Health

Ajax Health, the medical device portfolio management company newly formed by KKR and Aisling Capital, led a $45 million round for Advanced Cardiac Therapeutics and the next-generation ablation catheter it’s developing.

Earlier today the private equity giants launched tapped Spirox chairman & CEO Duke Rohlen to lead Ajax Health. Rohlen, the former president of FoxHollow Technologies and the founder & former chief executive of CV Ingenuity, is also CEO at ACT.

That Santa Clara, Calif.-based company said existing backer New Enterprise Assoc. and new investor Questa Capital Management also participated in the round, which is earmarked for a clinical program aimed at winning regulatory nods in the U.S. and Europe.

“I am extremely pleased with the significant financial commitment that Ajax, NEA, and Questa have made to ACT in this funding round,” Rohlen said in prepared remarks. “Their support provides further validation of our technology, our leadership team, and our strategy to develop a next-generation, workhorse product to treat patients suffering from atrial fibrillation and other cardiac arrhythmias. We are thrilled to partner with these blue-chip investors as we accelerate into large clinical studies and regulatory approvals.”

ACT said it tapped Dr. Philippe Henri Marco, former CV Ingenuity president & COO, to fill that role at ACT.

“Dr. Marco is the perfect fit for us,” Rohlen said. “We previously worked together when he was the president & COO of CV Ingenuity, and I was able to witness 1st-hand how his tremendous skills and industry background propel companies forward. His excellent track record of expeditiously taking medical devices through regulatory approvals to market will serve ACT well.”

The ACT device uses its DiamondTemp catheter and RF generator and includes an integrated fluid irrigation pump. The company bills it as the 1st of its kind to combine temperature control, contact force-sensing and high-resolution electrogram recording.

“On behalf of Ajax, we are delighted to be making this investment in ACT,” added Ajax director Jim Momtazee. “The company’s sound technology platform, coupled with its tremendously talented and resourceful team, positions ACT to accelerate this therapy to market for the benefit of many physicians and their patients.”

“I am pleased to be investing again with Duke and the entire ACT team,” Questa founder & managing director Ryan Drant said. “They are outstanding entrepreneurs who are driving major improvement in atrial fibrillation therapy with their proprietary DiamondTemp technology.”

“ACT’s continued impressive progress in building a highly differentiated, next generation solution for catheter ablation has been remarkable. We are equally enthusiastic to welcome Ajax and Questa as our financial partners in supporting the ACT team’s efforts to take the treatment of atrial fibrillation to a new level,” noted NEA partner Dr. Justin Klein.

 

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