Maker of Device to Help Improve Breathing Seeks $2.5MMaker of Device to Help Improve Breathing Seeks $2.5M

Aerin Medical, a Santa Clara company that makes the nonsurgical InFlux device to help people with chronic nasal obstruction breathe better, is seeking $2.5 million, according to a regulatory filing.

The money will be used to commercialize the device, said Scott Wolf, CEO of the company.

InFlux would help to bring a surgical solution into an office setting.

“It provides the ability or widen or open the nasal page in a nonsurgical procedure,” Wolf said.

The target population is people with chronic nasal obstruction but it actually could be used for anyone who wants to improve their breathing, including people who snore, Wolf explained. And that aim is embedded into the name of the company (Aerin = Air in).

The InFlux device uses RF energy to reshape the tissue inside of the nose, similar to how Lasik reshapes the surface of the eye.

“InFlux is like lasik for the nose,” Wolf said.

The company has previously raised $6 million from investors including serial entrepreneur and widely respected medical device expert Thomas Fogarty. Fogarty is also an advisor to the company-

Another investor is Launch Capital. The company has also raised money from the government of Singapore and maintains an office there.

Aerin has completed some clinical trials and is in the process of getting CE Mark.

“We will launch product in Europe in the first quarter of 2015,” he said.

Wolf has had experience running startups and as a venture capitalist. He helped to launch Zeltiq Aesthetics that markets a technology to noninvasively reduce fat.

-- By Arundhati Parmar, Senior Editor, MD+DI
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