French medtech company UroMems raises €16 million Series B

UroMems, French developer of medical devices that help with urinary incontinence, has secured €16 million in a Series B round, a combination of equity and debt, led by Hil-Invent with co-investor Financière Arbevel. The Grenoble-based company has created an electronic artificial urinary sphincter (eAUS), an implantable medical device that treats Stress Urinary Incontinence (SUI). “SUI is a highly prevalent condition. It has a major impact on a patient quality of life and is currently treated using products that have not seen meaningful advancement in decades,” explains Pr. Pierre Mozer, co-founder of UroMems and a urological surgeon at a hospital in Paris. According to the National Association for Incontinence, approximately 200 million patients suffer from incontinence worldwide. Protected by over 80 patents, the startup’s eAUS device could provide that needed advancement in a market estimated at $2 billion per year.

Referring to a €12 million Series A that closed in 2016, CEO Hamid Lamraoui said: “That capital enabled us to complete development of the eAUS device and all industrialization processes necessary to pursue clinical development of the technology. This additional capital will allow us to initiate the first phase of our clinical development program.” President of Hil-Invest, Dr. Friedrich Hillebrand, will join the medtech startup’s board. He commented: “The fact that the company has its own manufacturing capacity ready to scale is a significant competitive advantage that will be an important element of its go-to-market strategy.”

Existing UroMems investors, including Wellington Partners, Bpifrance, Cita Investissement, Supernova Invest and btov Partners also participated in the round. The debt financing was provided by a syndicate including Bpifrance, BNP Paribas, Caisse d’Epargne, Crédit Agricole and Banque Populaire.