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Tangent Medical Closes $4.5 Million Series A Financing

ANN ARBOR -- Tangent Medical Technologies Inc., a development stage medical device company, announced the completion of a $4.5 million Series A equity financing co-led by Arboretum Ventures of Ann Arbor and Flagship Ventures of Cambridge, Mass.

Also participating in the financing were Osage Ventures and several angel investors responsible for the initial seed funding for the company. In conjunction with the financing, Tim Petersen of Arboretum and Harry Wilcox of Flagship have joined Tangent's board of directors.

"Tangent plans to use the Series A proceeds for regulatory filings and commercial launch of the company's lead product, the NovaCath Closed IV Catheter System," said Jeff Williams, chairman and CEO of Tangent.

NovaCath is a novel peripheral intravenous (PIV) catheter system originally conceived at the University of Michigan by Tangent's technical founders, Adrienne Harris, Elyse Kemmerer and Steven White, all of whom remain with the company.  PIV catheters are frequently used in hospitals and other healthcare settings to administer drugs and fluids to patients through a vein in the hand or arm. More than 334 million PIV catheters are sold in the US annually.

"Our research indicates a high level of dissatisfaction among healthcare workers and patients with current peripheral IV catheters," said Harry Wilcox, Partner at Flagship Ventures.  "The NovaCath system has been designed to reduce the problems commonly associated with current PIV catheters and improve healthcare worker safety and patient comfort."*

"Arboretum is delighted to co-lead the Tangent Series A financing," said Tim Petersen, managing director at Arboretum Ventures. "I look forward to having the opportunity to work with Harry and Jeff again, and believe the outstanding team at Tangent has developed a product that will be very successful once FDA clearance to market is received."

Previously, Arboretum and Flagship co-invested in Accuri Cytometers, an Ann Arbor-based life sciences company, and Petersen and Wilcox served on Accuri's board of directors along with Williams, who was also president and CEO. Accuri was sold to Becton, Dickinson and Company for $205 million in March 2011.

Founded in 2002, Arboretum currently manages $235 million in capital.  Arboretum takes pride in a hands-on, constructive approach to assisting our portfolio companies, born from our own experience in startups. We combine this entrepreneurial experience with a set of key relationships within the healthcare and medical technology industries to help entrepreneurs develop valuable businesses. For more information, please visit www.arboretumvc.com.

Founded in 2000, Flagship manages over $800 million in early-stage funds. With an active portfolio of over 60 companies, Flagship has a track record of building highly innovative and successful companies across its principal business sectors: Therapeutics, Life Science Tools & Diagnostics, and BioEnergy/Cleantech.  For more information, visit www.flagshipventures.com.

More about the company at www.tangentmedical.com.

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