Tag Archives: Commercialization

CoapTech Raises $7 Million in Series B Funding Led by Hunniwell Lake Ventures

Baltimore, MD, 2020-Aug-28 — /REAL TIME PRESS RELEASE/ — CoapTech LLC (Baltimore, MD), a leading medical device start-up pioneering the world’s first and only ultrasound-based feeding tube placement system, announced today the closing of a Series B investment of $7 million led by Palo Alto-based medical device venture capital firm Hunniwell Lake Ventures. The financing will be used to fund CoapTech’s commercialization of its FDA-cleared PUMA-G System.

By simplifying gastrostomy procedures to the point where they can be conducted at the patient’s bedside with ultrasound, hospitals using PUMA-G benefit by freeing up surgical suites and personnel resources for COVID and other clinical priorities, minimizing cross-contamination, and improving efficiencies in care.

CoapTech was founded by critical care physician Dr. Steven Tropello and clinical innovation researcher Howard Carolan, to reduce unnecessary delays, harm, and costs for feeding tube placement, a vital therapy for millions of patients each year around the world.

Howard Carolan, CEO and Co-Founder, states: “We have been receiving fantastic feedback from hospitals in our initial launch program, which are using the PUMA-G System to revolutionize feeding tube placement. By using ultrasound at the patient bedside, rather than the conventional approach of orchestrating expensive and inefficient consults, critical care physicians are completing these procedures in minutes, on the same shift a feeding tube is first indicated. We’re seeing early indications those efficiencies result in patients leaving the ICU sooner, which saves hospitals many thousands of dollars per admission. A substantial portion of this new funding is from physicians who have seen the device and believe it can become the new default method for feeding tube placement.”

Dr. Steven Tropello elaborates, “the PUMA-G System is proving itself ready for standard-of-care adoption for safe and timely gastrostomy tube placement. It is also proving a powerful approach in the fight against COVID, by completely eliminating transport of patients, team members, and reprocessed tools throughout the hospital in favor of a sterile, disposable, bedside solution. I am also very excited about other clinical applications of the PUMA platform we are developing and aim to have for patients in the near future.”

This Series B investment was led by Hunniwell Lake Ventures, a Palo Alto-based medical device venture capital firm.

Daniel Teo, Managing Partner at Hunniwell Lake Ventures, further states “Coaptech’s PUMA System has the potential to transform gastrostomy and many other surgical procedures by allowing them to be performed using ultrasound at the bedside, in hospitals, ambulatory centers, skilled nursing facilities, and LTACHs (Long-term Acute Care Hospitals). This also benefits patients by bringing the procedure closer to the Point-of-Demand (PoD) and giving them more options with a larger community of medical providers capable of performing the procedure.

About CoapTech
Founded in Baltimore, Maryland, CoapTech seeks to bring to the international market breakthrough medical devices utilizing the Point of care Ultrasound Magnet Aligned (PUMA) System, a patented technology developed by Dr. Steven Tropello most notably leveraged in the PUMA-G system. PUMA-G was conceived by Dr. Tropello after the critical care physician became frustrated by the inefficiency of the current feeding tube placement system in hospitals. The novel PUMA technology has the potential to disrupt multiple medical procedures with new, minimally invasive alternatives based on ultrasound – substantially reducing costs and improving patient experience, safety, efficiencies, and access.

About Hunniwell Lake Ventures
Founded by Richard Fang and Daniel Teo, successful medical device entrepreneurs turned venture capitalists, Hunniwell Lake Ventures’ mission is to make surgery safer, more accessible and less invasive by investing in surgical innovations that help medical providers See, Treat and Heal better.

Media contacts:

CoapTech
info@coaptech.com
www.coaptech.com

Hunniwell
info@hunniwell.com
www.hunniwell.com

Geothermic Fuel Cell™ Prototype Moves IEP One Step Closer to Commercialization

Independent Energy Partners, Inc. (IEP) with partner Delphi Corporation successfully tested an initial single stack geothermic fuel cell™ (GFC) prototype, keeping IEP on track for field testing and initial oil production at a test site by mid 2015.

Denver, CO, May 17, 2013 — Independent Energy Partners, Inc. successfully tested an initial single stack geothermic fuel cell™ (GFC) prototype, keeping them on track for field testing and initial oil production at a test site by mid 2015. The fuel cells will be used to heat underground oil shale formations in situ or in place. Testing confirms the fuel cells will be able to generate the high temperatures needed to extract both liquid and gas hydrocarbons from the oil shale while simultaneously generating clean electricity.

“This is a huge milestone for us as it confirms the concept and sets us nicely on the path toward full-scale prototype and field testing without any unexpected delays,” said Al Forbes, IEP’s President and CEO. “The Delphi team’s deep experience in solid oxide fuel cells certainly helped us meet this milestone confidently.”

IEP has put more than ten years into patenting, designing and developing the geothermic fuel cell technology using the US Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to help refine the concept and Delphi Corporation’s solid oxide fuel cell expertise to develop, build and test the GFC prototype.

Delphi Corporation was chosen to build the GFCs because of their expertise in solid oxide fuel cell technology and manufacturing capabilities. The partnership is already paying off with this successful first-round prototype passing both internal testing at Delphi and additional outside testing at the Colorado School of Mines Colorado Fuel Cell Center in preparation for the large-scale stack testing later this year.

“It’s exciting—especially in new clean technologies—to have such a successful first prototype,” said Dan Hennessy, chief engineer, Advanced Engineering, Delphi Powertrain Systems. “Our team is already working on assembling the next prototype and anticipating similar success when we test it later this year.”

Geothermic Fuel Cells will expedite nature’s underground heating process to turn kerogen into a producible, usable oil product. Current technologies require either surface mining and crushing the shale or using large amounts of coal-fired electricity to power heating rods inserted in a formation. IEP’s technology becomes self-fueling after brief start-up period. The natural byproduct of the fuel cell is heat, which heats the kerogen in the formation to a vapor that can be transported and collected above ground. Most of the electricity produced by the fuel cells is available as a clean, base load energy source for local utilities.

With US oil shale reserves estimated at more than 1.5 trillion barrels of oil that are not currently viable to recover, IEP’s technology stands to open huge energy reserves in the United States and abroad. The GFCs have many additional applications, including a growing interest in their use in landfill pyrolysis to both reduce landfill mass and create clean, base load energy for municipalities.

Field-testing is scheduled for early to mid 2015.

About Independent Energy Partners:
Independent Energy Partners (IEP) is a clean technology and resource company based in Denver, Colorado focused on the economic and environmentally responsible recovery of unconventional hydrocarbon resources utilizing its patented, breakthrough in-situ Geothermic Fuel Cell™(GFC™) system. IEP was founded in 1991 and has been involved in the development of more than 15 energy projects employing a wide range of technologies. The company holds exclusive rights to broad, patented GFC processes and technology in the U.S. and Canada as well as its own oil shale resources containing more than 2.0 billion barrels of oil. Patenting and technological development has been underway since 2004 and has been vetted by the US Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. IEP holds strategic partnerships with Total Petroleum, Uintah Resources, Inc., Delphi Corporation and Colorado School of Mines. Learn more about the compan y and its technology at www.iepm.com.

About Delphi:
Delphi is a leading global supplier of electronics and technologies for automotive, commercial vehicle and other market segments. Operating major technical centers, manufacturing sites and customer support facilities in 32 countries, Delphi delivers real-world innovations that make products smarter and safer as well as more powerful and efficient. Connect to innovation at www.delphi.com.

Contact:
Cindy Jennings
Independent Energy Partners, Inc.
TEC Building
11479 S. Pine Dr.
Parker, CO 80134
+1 303-792-0055
cindy@volitionstrategies.com
http://www.IEPM.com