Million exit from Hemovent

The start-up from Aachen develops devices for intensive care medicine, including a mobile ECMO device. Now a company from Shanghai has acquired the start-up Hemovent for 123 million euros.

Since the Corona pandemic at the latest, so-called ECMO devices have been known to take over the body's functions in the event of heart-lung failure. The smallest portable of these devices, called Mobybox, was developed by the start-up Hemovent. Now the Aachen-based company has been sold to the Shanghai-based medical device company Microport. The acquisition cost the Chinese up to 123 million euros.

"We are very pleased with our new partner MicroPort. We look forward to significantly expanding our business at our current location in Aachen, as well as expanding our international activities and distribution chains," says Christof Lenz, who heads Hemovent. Founded in 2013, the start-up develops various devices in the ECMO field, the abbreviation stands for Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation. So far, the mobile version of Hemovent's heart-lung machine has only been approved in Europe.

In China, the start-up assumes 100,000 applications per million inhabitants, a promising market. This is also where the buyer MicroPort Surgical BV, a subsidiary of MicroPort Scientific Corporation, is located. The acquisition is primarily strategically motivated: "The European Triangle of R&D and production centers in France, Italy and Germany is a long-term strategic layout of MicroPort to open up the European market," explains Chengyun Yue, head of MicroPort Surgery. And tells what his plans are with Hemovent: "After the closing of the transaction, MicroPort will focus on strengthening its technological innovation capabilities and large-scale industrialization capabilities in Germany, and leverage the synergy of global innovation resources."

The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2021, pending full approvals.

Hemovent's largest shareholder is venture capitalist MIG Capital, which took Biontech and NFON, among others, public. It was also responsible for the sale of Siltectra to Infineon for 124 million euros. Two funds of MIG Capital own 27 percent of Hemovent, "We are very proud that we were able to be an important partner in this success story as lead investor. At the same time, the timing is ideal for the sale to a strategic partner. Within the framework of a globally operating medical technology group, Hemovent can take its business model and the commercialization of the devices to a new level in the future," Matthias Guth, Partner at MIG Capital, comments on the exit.