Spinal surgery technology company Carlsmed raises $30M

The company uses patient data and machine learning to create a personalized spinal implant

The spinal implants and surgery devices market is expected to be worth over $14 billion by 2028, with surgeons performing over 1.6 million spinal fusions every year. And, yet, the current treatments are not personalized for each patient; instead, they use implants with predefined sizes and configurations until they find one that fits that patient, necessitating a lot of trial and error.

Carlsmed wants to change that: the company makes personalized surgical implants for patients with debilitating spine deformities.

On Tuesday, the company announced an oversubscribed $30 million Series B funding round of funding, led by B Capital Group, with existing investors, U.S. Venture Partners, The Vertical Group, Cove Fund and Wavemaker Three-Sixty Health also participating. This is the company's first funding since raising a $10 million Series A in December 2020.

Founded in 2018, Carlsmed's 3D printed spine devices, are built on demand for each individual patient and provided directly to hospitals through qualified distributors. It uses the patients anatomy and machine learning algorithms to create optimized surgical plans and 3D printed implants.

Once a hospital sets up the Carlsmed system, a patient receives imaging, such as X-ray, CT or MRI, and images are transferred to Carlsmed's aprevo system, which is FDA cleared. It then creates a surgical plan that is reviewed by the surgeon and patient, and upon surgeon approval, 3D printed implants are created and packaged sterile for surgery.

“Traditionally, patients undergoing spinal surgery are at risk for postoperative complications and revision surgery. Our goal is for aprevo to be the last spinal surgery a patient will ever need,” Mike Cordonnier, CEO of Carlsmed, said in a statement.

“Unlike conventional implants that are mass produced in stock shapes and sizes, each aprevo device is designed for a specific patient, with spinal alignment correction built into the device.”

The company says that it plans to use the new Series B funding to ramp up commercialization of aprevo.

Along with the funding, the company also announced that Robert Mittendorff, General Partner and Head of Healthcare at B Capital Group, joined its Board of Directors, while Widya Mulyasasmita, Senior Principal of Healthcare at B Capital Group, had join the Board as an observer.

“We are pleased to support the Carlsmed team in the transformation of spine surgery, enabled with artificial intelligence, to produce patient and surgeon specific implants,” Dr. Mittendorff said in a statement. “The potential for the Carlsmed platform to improve both surgical workflow and patient outcomes is substantial, and the team leading this innovation is second to none.”

(Image source: carlsmed.com)