Sentante, a pioneering medical device company headquartered in Lithuania,
announces the closing of a €6 million seed funding round led by Practica Capital
with participation of EIC fund. The company will use the proceeds from the financing
for the planned clinical trial of the Sentante robotic system and preparation of
commercial launch in targeted international markets.
„We appreciate the trust and support from our new investors to help us reach our
critical milestones. Sentante will revolutionize the way endovascular procedures are
performed and we are looking forward to introducing our robotic system into clinical
practice,“ said Edvardas Satkauskas, co-founder and CEO of Sentante. “Our
innovative robotic technology will digitize and improve the procedure by empowering
physicians to work with better accuracy, precision, and safety.”
Endovascular management of cardiovascular diseases, such as stroke, heart
attacks, peripheral artery disease, involves over six million procedures annually.
Despite the market's size and innovations in the field, the procedure remains largely unchanged for over four decades. Physicians typically operate next to an X-ray
source while wearing heavy lead aprons, manually navigating catheters and
guidewires inserted into the patient's vascular system. This method poses a
heightened risk of medical errors and complications due to the non-ergonomic
workspace and serious occupational hazards from prolonged X-ray exposure.
Sentante will be easily incorporated into existing treatment workflow, as it uses the
same medical devices as in a manual procedure. „We look forward to the initiation of
the first-in-human clinical study later in 2024, marking a pivotal milestone that will
showcase Sentante's capabilities in peripheral vascular interventions. “ said Dr.
Tomas Baltrunas, co-founder and Chief Medical Officer of the Company. „Controlled
intuitively via conventional endovascular devices as the interface, the Sentante
robotic system senses operators' movements, providing a near-natural haptic forcefeedback experience. Even when working remotely, I can experience the same
sensation of catheter and guidewire resistance as if I were physically present beside
the patient"
"We are thrilled to partner with Sentante, a company that aligns perfectly with our
philosophy of supporting transformative innovations. With their unique teleoperated
endovascular intervention system, Sentante is set to redefine surgical practices
globally, improving both patient outcomes and the well-being of medical
professionals. This investment underscores our commitment to advancing healthcare
technologies that have the potential to create a significant, positive impact
worldwide", said Tomas Andriuškevičius, partner at Practica Capital.
Svetoslava Georgieva, Chair of the EIC Fund Board, said: “The EIC Fund aims at
backing European innovators in scaling their journey and Sentante is a great
example of how the European Union is helping top innovators. The EIC Fund's
ambitious commitment, alongside other investors, is an important step to boost their
development.”
Sentante remains dedicated to advancing the landscape of endovascular care
offering a transformative solution that promises to redefine medical practice globally.
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About Sentante
Introduction video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-8jG5mAXjE
Sentante is an innovative teleoperated robotic system developed by UAB Inovatyvi
Medicina. It allows an entire endovascular intervention to be performed remotely,
from a different room, so physicians and entire medical team can work without being
exposed to harmful X-ray radiation. In the future, Sentante will allow physicians to
perform endovascular treatment from a remote hospital, eliminating the need for
physical patient transfer. This innovation bears profound significance, particularly in
critical cases such as stroke, where each passing minute significantly impacts the
chances of good outcome.
About Practica Capital
Practica Capital is an early-stage VC dedicated to backing Baltic founders. The firm
has been invested exclusively in tech potential in the Baltic States for over 10 years.
Practica Capital back great founders in their ambition in seed, selected pre-seed
and Series A stages and partnering with them as company builders. Practica Capital
manages four funds with more than €130m in AUM. To date the firm made over 60
investments, including great companies like Atrandi, Oxipit, Biomatter Designs,
PVcase, TransferGo, Interactio, Eneba, Ovoko, CGtrader and others. Find out more:
About EIC Fund
The European Innovation Council Fund from the European Commission is an
agnostic Fund: it invests across all technologies and verticals, and all EU countries
and countries associated to Horizon Europe. It provides the investment component
of the EIC Accelerator blended finance. The European Investment Bank acts as
investment adviser to the EIC Fund.
The EIC Fund aims to fill a critical financing gap and its main purpose is to support
companies in the development and commercialization of disruptive technologies,
bridging with and crowding in market players, and further sharing risk by building a
large network of capital providers and strategic partners suitable for co-investments
and follow-on funding.
The Fund has – amongst others - the ambition to reduce the innovation divide
among EU countries.