Funding for Late-Stage Medical Tech Companies

Officials from SightLine Partners, a leading manager of private equity funds that provide creative financing solutions to late-stage medical technology companies, announce the closing of SightLine Healthcare Opportunity Fund II, L.P., a $107 million fund dedicated to secondary direct investments in medical technology companies. Fund II was oversubscribed, exceeding its original target of $100 million.

Buzz Benson, managing director at SightLine, comments, "We are encouraged by the tremendous interest in the Fund, from an excellent group of investors. Our investment strategy of providing creative financial alternatives to existing investors in late-stage medical technology companies has been well-received in the market, as evidenced by the over-subscription in Fund II. There continues to be a critical financing gap for many high-quality companies in the med-tech sector and SightLine Partners is uniquely qualified to offer solutions to both the companies and investors facing this challenging environment.”

The last five years has seen a substantial reduction in the amount of funding available to late-stage companies, placing additional stress on a company’s current investor syndicate. SightLine’s investment focus since early 2009 has been to provide financial alternatives to existing investors in late-stage companies who may not have sufficient capital to support current portfolio companies and risk having their preferred ownership converted to common, or wish to achieve liquidity on certain portfolio companies, need to reduce or eliminate future funding requirements, or want to rebalance and reallocate fund reserves.

Joe Biller, managing director at SightLine, adds, "Our investment strategy is well-suited to the current financing environment in the medical technology marketplace, where many late-stage companies are requiring more capital and time to achieve a successful exit. We continue to see opportunities which have a near term clarity of exit and which provide the best potential for risk-adjusted returns."

In conjunction with the final closing of Fund II, Scott Ward has transitioned from a venture partner role to a full time managing director. Ward has more than 30 years of experience in the medical device industry and held a number of senior leadership positions with Medtronic including senior vice president and president of Medtronic Cardiovascular.

“SightLine Partners has a unique model which enables us to assist quality companies in the med-tech space while stabilizing investor syndicates and delivering attractive returns for our own investors. Sightline has had great success with this model in Fund I and I look forward to working with the team to drive continued success in Fund II,” Ward states.