Cleveland, OH, October 12, 2010 – JumpStart Ventures, which invests in and partners with innovative, early-stage companies in Northeast Ohio, announced an investment commitment of $250,000 in medical device company Endotronix, Inc. The three-year-old Cuyahoga county company is developing a wireless monitoring technology for patients with congestive heart failure. The disease currently affects 5.5 million Americans with another 670,000 new cases diagnosed each year.Endotronix’s implantable technology, which interacts with an external, hand-held measurement instrument, allows congestive heart failure (CHF) patients to remotely monitor the status of their disease.
“What sets Endotronix’s technology apart from competition is that it provides remote monitoring anywhere, anytime,” said Mike Lang, the JumpStart Venture Partner who will work with the company.
Costs for direct and indirect care of managing heart failure patients were more than $37 billion in 2009, according to The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. More than half the cost was attributed to in-hospital care. This regular monitoring should help physicians reduce the occurrence of CHF-related hospitalizations.
The investment from JumpStart Ventures is part of a larger investment round and will be used to further the company’s product development.
“We are proud to have JumpStart Ventures as a partner and we continue to be grateful for the tremendous support of entrepreneurship in Northeast Ohio,” said Endotronix co-founder, Dr. Harry Rowland. “This investment brings us one step closer to commercializing this technology, which has the potential to not only improve patient care, but also reduce the cost of treating heart failure.”
This investment represents JumpStart Ventures’ 69th investment in its 50th company.
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About Endotronix, Inc.
Endotronix, Inc. is a medical device company dedicated to wireless health monitoring for congestive heart failure (CHF) patients. The company’s “Anytime, Anywhere” wireless sensing platform technology will give physicians the ability to dramatically reduce the occurrence of CHF-related events and hospitalizations by remotely monitoring a patient’s health status and titrating medications appropriately to prevent worsening heart function. In the United States alone, there are more than 5.5 million patients with CHF, and 670,000 new cases are diagnosed annually. Current treatment is sub-optimal, resulting in high re-hospitalization rates (27 percent at 30 days) and mortality (35 percent at one year). The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute estimated that the 2009 costs for the direct and indirect care of managing heart failure patients were more than $37 billion, with the majority of costs resulting from in-hospital care.
About JumpStart Ventures
JumpStart Ventures invests in and forges partnerships with innovative, early-stage Northeast Ohio companies that have the potential to generate $30 to $50 million in revenues in five to seven years. It helps companies accelerate their time to venture-readiness by bundling guidance from experienced Venture Partners with seed investment capital. JumpStart Ventures is the investment arm of JumpStart Inc., a nationally recognized non-profit organization creating economic transformation by providing resources to entrepreneurs leading high potential early-stage companies.
Leigh Keeton
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Marketing Communications Manager
JumpStart Inc.
737 Bolivar Rd. Suite 3000
Cleveland, OH 44115
o: 216.363.3411
m: 440.213.8297
