SoCal startup Axonics Modulation Technologies has raised $17.3 million, according to a new regulatory filing. Based in Irvine, the startup is developing implantable sacral neuromodulation devices that treat conditions like overactive bladder and fecal incontinence.
A representative for Axonics said that it’s not yet speaking publicly about this financing. Just last year, it raised an impressive $32.6 million Series A – proof that this neuromodulation trend is really taking off. The previous round came largely from abroad – such as Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners in France, Switzerland-based NeoMed Management and Chinese firm Legend Capital.
These kinds of incontinence are actually a pretty major problem – more than 33 million people in the U.S. have overactive bladder, for instance. Sacral neuromodulation has been pegged by the American Urological Association as a way to treat these conditions without medication.
The company licensed its technology from the Alfred Mann Foundation and launched in 2013. The team’s made up of execs coming from Vessix Vascular, before it was sold to Boston Scientific in 2012.
Medtronic seems to have cornered the market in sacral neuromodulation, which is why it’s interesting that this startup is heading, guns blazing, into the same space. The company holds a substantial patent portfolio – 19 in the U.S. and E.U., and 10 new, non-provisional patent applications filed and pending.
Read more about Axonics’ next-gen neuromodulation here.
