VenoStent, a Houston-based advanced materials company, raised $2.3M in seed funding.

The round was led by Creative Ventures with participation from IAG Capital Partners, C3 Ventures, Olima Ventures, Texas Halo Fund, Cowtown Angels, and SP Investment Fund, among other prominent investors, following their participation in Y Combinator’s Summer 2020 Batch. The close brings the funding to date to more than $6m. This includes non-dilutive grants from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the 2020 Redesign Dialysis Phase II KidneyX Prize from the Department of Health and Human Services and the American Society of Nephrology, as well as previous investment rounds with Texas Halo Fund, Activated Capital, Health Wildcatters, Cougar Ventures, and Cowtown Angels.

The company intends to use the funds to propel team growth, scale quality control and manufacturing process, and strengthen clinical and reimbursement positions.

Led by Tim Boire, Ph.D., Co-Founder and CEO, Geoff Lucks, Co-Founder and COO, VenoStent is an advanced materials company with patented core technology in polymer engineering. Its first product, SelfWrap, is a slip-on, bioresorbable wrap aimed to eliminate vascular access surgery failure rate of 55-65% in hemodialysis patients.

The company is working to complete their first-in-human clinical work, and conduct relevant studies to ready themselves for Breakthrough Device Designation (BDD) and Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) submissions.