Galway-headquartered WhiteSwell raises $30m in series B round

12 Dec 2018

New funding will go towards technology for the treatment of heart failure. Image: © vladk213/Stock.adobe.com

WhiteSwell is pioneering a new way to treat heart failure.

WhiteSwell has raised $30m in a series B funding round led by RA Capital Management and an InCube Ventures syndicate, with participation from other investors.

The company is headquartered in Galway with a research team based in Shefayim, near Tel Aviv in Israel.

‘This financing is an important milestone that will enable us to tackle an enormous clinical problem that affects millions of families’
– EAMON BRADY

The company also announced that WhiteSwell founder and chief technology officer Yaacov Nitzan has been joined on the leadership team by chief executive officer Eamon Brady and chief financial officer Seán Mac Réamoinn.

Brady was also the founder and CEO of Neuravi, which developed devices for removing clots from brain arteries in stroke patients, and which was acquired by Johnson & Johnson last year.

Innovative leaps

Funds from the round will be used to support product development and a pivotal study of the company’s innovative technology for the treatment of acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF).

Founded by Nitzan in 2014, WhiteSwell is pioneering a minimally invasive catheter-based approach designed to more efficiently remove excess interstitial fluid in patients with ADHF by enhancing the natural fluid removal process of the lymphatic system.

ADHF causes worsening heart failure symptoms that result in millions of hospitalisations worldwide each year, including nearly 2m people in the US alone.

WhiteSwell’s technology enhances the natural fluid removal process of the lymphatic system, a network of vessels that permeates the interstitial system to drain excess fluid into the vascular system to achieve interstitial decongestion. Currently there is no effective treatment to directly remove excess fluid from lung and other interstitial tissues.

“WhiteSwell was founded on insights that arose from our team’s research on the complex fluid dynamics of heart failure patients, leading to the company’s innovative leap in treatment strategy,” said Brady.

“This financing is an important milestone that will enable us to tackle an enormous clinical problem that affects millions of families.”

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com