MIMOSA wins at medtech investment challenge

HALIFAX – MIMOSA Diagnostics, the Halifax- and Toronto-based maker of a medical device for non-invasively measuring tissue damage, emerged as winner of the medtech finals at the Atlantic Canada Healthtech Scale-up and Investment Challenge, earning $100,000 in the process.

Founded by Dr. Karen Cross (pictured), a plastic surgeon, and General Leung, a magnetic resonance researcher at the University of Toronto, MIMOSA has developed technology to more quickly diagnose bedsores and similar wounds via a process called tissue oximetry, which uses light to measure tissue health. The company’s win comes after receiving Health Canada approval earlier this year.

As reported by entrevestor.com, the event capped off 12 weeks of training for founders of the 16 healthtech companies, with the first three months being run by Halifax’s Imaginal Ventures and the final four weeks of investor-readiness work led by Vancouver-based angel network Spring.

Dubbed the Impact Investment Challenge, the last four weeks also saw prospective angel investors joining Spring’s portion of the program on a parallel track, which offered them an introduction to impact investing in exchange for committing funds to back the first-place startup. Nova Scotia Health Innovation Hub funded the program but did not invest.

“We look below the surface of the skin,” said Dr. Cross. “We can see if the skin is healthy, and we can see that wound before it comes to the surface. This is quantitative technology, such that doctors and nurses in real time can make treatment decisions.”

MIMOSA’s Health Canada approval in January paved the way for it to launch north of the border about six months after it won U.S. Food and Drug Administration sign-off. The company’s technology is now used by more than 1,300 medical clinics, with institutions like the Mayo Clinic and Mount Sinai Hospital having signed on.

“About two weeks ago I told you we had commission-based sales reps,” Cross told investors. “Now, we have over 250 commission-based sales reps covering all 50 states.

“We have displaced our competitor with a major distributor, and we are also now targeting Veteran’s Affairs. We can sell into the VA and have our first trial starting next week.”

About the same time as the American approval, MIMOSA raised an undisclosed amount of funding via a convertible debenture, which is a hybrid debt and equity financing instrument, in a deal led by Toronto’s Archerwill Investments.

Now, Cross said MIMOSA is on track to double its sales this year and break-even next year. And a data partnership with a large technology company is in the works.

Here’s a look at the other four finalists:

AIMA
Vancouver
AIMA has developed a vaginal suppository that uses non-psychoactive cannabinoids to control period pain.

DeCell Technologies
Halifax
DeCell is best known for DermGEN, a natural scaffolding made from donated human skin, which can be placed over an ulcer to encourage the regeneration of skin cells and keep the wound clean to avoid infection.

PragmaClin Research
St. John’s
PragmaClin is building solutions to allow for remote medical assessments of people with movement disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease.

NeoCare
Halifax
NeoCare is building a device to non-invasively, painlessly and instantly detect diseases in newborns, including anemia, jaundice and hypoxia.

SOURCE: Avery Mullen, entrevestor.com