Velano Vascular Raises $3.5 Million To Support Commercialization Needle-Free Blood Draw Device

-- Industry Veteran Quinton J. Farrar Joins Company to Oversee Manufacturing and Operations --

San Francisco -- Velano Vascular, a medical technology company transforming and enhancing the care experience for hospitalized patients and their practitioners, announced today that the company has raised an additional $3.5 million in funding. Velano will use the proceeds from this financing, an extension of a $5 million Series A financing completed inJanuary 2015, to support the development and commercialization of the company's inpatient blood-draw technology in adult and pediatric populations.

Four institutional investors and two hospitals that previously invested in Velano Vascular participated in this follow-on financing, as well as nine new investors. The prior investors comprise First Round Capital, White Owl Capital, Kapor Capital, and Safeguard Scientifics, in addition to Griffin Hospital, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and a number of health industry veterans. New investors include former Becton Dickinson Chairman and CEO Ed Ludwig, individual members of the Medline leadership team, Oscar S. Schafer, Qosina Founder Stuart Herskovitz and D-W Investments.

"We are honored that both industry veterans and hospital and institutional investors are actively helping expand the development and commercialization of our novel blood draw technology," said Eric M. Stone, co-founder and CEO of Velano Vascular. "We continue to identify partners who understand the need for our technology and the potential for it to become the new standard of care."

Initial funding for Velano Vascular was provided by a series of angel investors, followed by the $5 million Series A announced last year.

Velano Vascular's proprietary device is designed to reduce blood draw-related discomfort and anxiety for hospital inpatients, provide a safer work environment for healthcare providers, and standardize today's fragmented approaches to inpatient blood draws with the aim of bringing efficiency and enhanced outcomes to the most common, invasive medical procedure conducted in hospitals today. The company's single-use, disposable device is intended to standardize blood draws via patients' existing, indwelling peripheral IV (PIV) catheter, reducing the reliance on repeat needle sticks and central line blood draws.

Velano is currently working to better understand and evaluate its technology in pediatric patients, and will initiate pilot programs this year exploring the company's enhanced device in medical centers and departments that serve both adult and pediatric patients.

"Velano Vascular has created a technology with the potential to dramatically improve the quality of inpatient blood draws, and the company is bringing their innovation to the market in a very thoughtful and deliberate way," said investor Ed Ludwig. "Based on progress to date, as well as the market and product development activities currently underway, I am confident that this investment can have a significant impact in establishing a new and better standard of care."

The company simultaneously announced the appointment of industry veteran Quinton J. Farrar to the position of vice president, Manufacturing and Operations. With a distinguished career comprising more than 35 years of technology development in the medical device industry, Farrar will lead the organization's scale-up efforts to support growing demand for Velano's breakthrough product offering. Prior to joining Velano Vascular, Farrar held executive and leadership positions with Smiths Medical, Genzyme Biosurgical and Pfizer HPG. Most recently, he served as global vice president, Operations Technology and Research and Development at Smiths Medical.

The Need for New Blood-Draw Technology
Roughly 760 inpatient draws are conducted every minute in the United States alone.^[1] Despite their ubiquity, blood draws create tremendous disruption for patients and clinicians alike, and are associated with significant direct and indirect costs. Twenty-eight percent of adult venipunctures and 44 percent of pediatric venipunctures require more than one stick to successfully draw blood,^[2] and around 10 percent of children aged 3 to 10 years old must be physically restrained to endure a needle-based blood draw.^[3] Published data suggest that U.S. healthcare professionals endure an average of 200 needle-related injuries each day.^[4] Aside from the significant physical and emotional toll of these injuries and any related seroconversion, studies suggest that accidental needle sticks cost hospitals upwards of $50 million per year.^[5]

About Velano Vascular
Velano Vascular technologies transform patient care by enhancing the blood-draw experience during hospitalization. The company's innovative medical technologies aim to reduce blood draw-related pain and discomfort for patients, while standardizing the procedure to improve efficiency for providers. Founded by a patient advocate and a physician, Velano Vascular is backed by First Round Capital, Kapor Capital, Safeguard Scientifics, White Owl Capital, Griffin Hospital, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and dozens of health-industry veterans.  Velano Vascular's clinical collaborators include several of the leading hospital systems in the United States. 

1. Data on file; Velano Vascular
2. Frost and Sullivan, 2009
3. Spagrud LJ, von Baeyer CL, Ali K, Mpofu C, Fennell LP, Friesen K, Mitchell J. Pain, distress, and adult-child interaction during venipuncture in pediatric oncology: an examination of three types of venous access. J Pain Symptom Manage. 2008 Aug;36(2):173-84
4. Laramie AK, Firsova N, Davis L, State Based Surveillance of Sharps Injuries among Hospital Workers, 2002-2004, American Journal of Infection Control, Volume 35, Issue 5, Page E166, June 2007.
5. Cost of a high-risk accidental needle stick injury is approximately $5,144 per incident. Frost & Sullivan Economic Model, Version 3.1, 2007