Bringing this treatment to market in the real world required that Concentric Medical undergo rigorous testing and clinical studies at 25 medical centers across the United States before gaining FDA approval. The company’s management team knew that this process would take time, but they could not be sure exactly how much time. They needed to ensure that they had enough money in the bank to get them through the trial period and into the go-to-market phase. While the company had the confidence and support of its venture capital investors, more equity dollars was not what the company’s CEO Gary Curtis was after.

“We knew the clinical trial phase was critical, and we were confident that we would be successful. We knew that once the market saw that tremendous difference MERCI could make in the treatment of stroke patients, we would be granted approval to bring our treatment to market,” said Curtis. “Frankly we thought we had enough cash in the bank to get us through this period, but we couldn’t be sure. And we didn’t need to be distracted by the notion of potentially falling short. Yet we didn’t want to take on more equity investments. We were looking for a ‘cash buffer’ that would give us more time, but not lead to further dilution.”

Curtis decided venture debt was a smarter alternative. After evaluating three providers, Curtis turned to Lighthouse Capital Partners. “Lighthouse was incredibly responsive to our needs and understood our circumstances. They offered us a growth capital line that gave us the buffer we were looking for. That meant we could rest easy that we were well funded through the trial phase – and we didn’t need to give up further company ownership to get it.”

With the necessary runway in place, Concentric made it successfully through the trial period, earning FDA approval and demonstrating groundbreaking results in the process. The MERCI Trial evaluated the device in 141 eligible patients and achieved a 50 percent success rate – and astounding increase of more than 30 percent over today’s conventional approach known as t-PA. Today Concentric is well on its way to bringing the MERCI treatment to market – and meeting its ultimate goal of saving and improving the lives of stroke victims.