Reeling in an $18 million add-on to the $37 million Series B that it reported last year, Bigfoot Biomedical touted today that it has raised over $90 million in total funding since the Milpitas, Calif.-based company first launched.
Investments from Abbott (NYSE:ABT), which has an established partnership with Bigfoot, and other new and existing investors, brought the Series B round total to $55 million. The company said it plans to use its newly-acquired funds to support the development and clinical evaluation of its closed-loop automated insulin delivery system, Bigfoot Loop, and its connected insulin pen-based decision support system, Bigfoot Inject.
“We are excited to welcome Abbott to our list of investors,” president & CEO Jeffrey Brewer said in prepared remarks. “Abbott’s inclusion in our financing speaks to our two companies’ alignment of vision for changing the paradigm of care for people with insulin-requiring diabetes.”
Last year, the company announced that it inked a deal with Abbott to combine Bigfoot’s insulin delivery system with Abbott‘s (NYSE:ABT) next-gen Freestyle Libre continuous glucose monitor.
Brewer noted in an essay published on LinkedIn that the medical device startup has garnered strong financial support from non-traditional players, like non-profit organizations, but has not received the same interest from the industry’s go-to venture capital firms.
“We’re grateful to have the financial backing we need to push our system further into clinical trials and another step closer to the patients who need it. We value our non-traditional investors who are helping make automated insulin delivery a reality for millions of people. We’re just sorry that the venture firms that were once enthusiastic backers of startup medical device companies are not coming along for the ride,” Brewer wrote.
“It’s sad, but there’s a reason medical device companies like Bigfoot are hearing crickets when we visit Sand Hill Road: the VCs who back medical devices have faced some tough times in the last decade, and now they are gun shy and have looked elsewhere to invest,” he added.
