Boomerang Medical Raises $15 Million in Series A Financing

Boomerang Medical has closed a $15 million Series A financing round led by existing investor Arboretum Ventures and new backer Hatteras Venture Partners. This round brings Boomerang’s total funding to $18 million to date.

“We are thankful for the support of our new and existing investors as we look to expand device-oriented treatment options for people with autoimmune diseases,” President/CEO Heather Simonsen said. “We are especially proud to announce this financing as a woman-led company, after watching the proportion of venture funding dollars drop from 2.8% in 2019 to 1.9% in 2022 for companies with a female at the helm, a decline we are helping to reverse.”

Boomerang will use the proceeds from the financing to advance clinical studies on neuromodulation for the treatment of autoimmune diseases, with an initial focus on Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD).
 
Boomerang Medical has added Jeff Terrell, general partner of Hatteras Venture Partners, to its Board of Directors as a result of the financing. 
 
“Heather and her team, with strong support from Fogarty Innovation, have reached critical milestones in a very short amount of time, culminating in their recent approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to commence the Boomerang Clinical Trial for patients with IBD,” Terrell said. “Hatteras is delighted to support Boomerang’s efforts to develop novel therapies in this area of significant unmet clinical need.”
 
An estimated 50 million people in the United States have an autoimmune disease, costing the overall healthcare system more than $100 billion. One of the most prevalent and costly is IBD, including its most common forms: Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. The onset of IBD usually occurs in young adulthood, is a lifelong condition, and affects nearly all aspects of living—including patients’ private, occupational and social lives. Research over the past 20 years has shown that stimulating certain nerve pathways may help regulate an overactive immune response in people with IBD and other autoimmune diseases.
 
“The team at Boomerang is well-suited to advance its device-oriented approach with strong potential to address historically hard-to-treat autoimmune conditions,” Arboretum Ventures Managing Partner Tom Shehab, M.D., added. “This investment reflects our belief in the Boomerang platform and the company’s ability to execute towards their vision. We look forward to supporting the team in its clinical efforts and working to combat the increasing incidence of Inflammatory Bowel Disease.”
 
Boomerang Medical is a women-led clinical-stage company headquartered on the campus of El Camino Hospital in Mountain View, Calif., and is a company-in-residence at Fogarty Innovation. Boomerang is developing a technology to advance the treatment of autoimmune diseases by harnessing the body’s own peripheral wiring in order to manage inflammation and immune response. 
 
Arboretum Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm specializing in the healthcare sector. The firm invests in medical devices, life science tools and diagnostics, and tech-enabled care delivery. Arboretum’s guiding vision is to identify transformative healthcare companies that are developing improved and less costly solutions to large, chronic health problems in a capital‐efficient manner. Founded in 2002 and located in Ann Arbor, Mich., Arboretum currently manages $700 million in capital across five investment funds. 
 
Founded in 2000 and based in Durham, N.C., Hatteras Venture Partners is a venture capital firm with a focus on seed and early stage healthcare investing. Through seven funds and more than $750 million under management, the firm has invested in breakthrough science and entrepreneurial grit in the areas of biopharmaceuticals, medical devices, diagnostics, healthcare IT, and related opportunities in human medicine. 
 
Headquartered on the El Camino Health campus in Mountain View, Calif., Fogarty Innovation is a medical technology nonprofit dedicated to advancing human health worldwide. Driven by a team of seasoned experts in the field, the organization fosters stronger alliances among innovators, industry and government, creating an engine for inventing, developing, and deploying new health technologies into the care pathway. Fogarty Innovation was founded by Thomas J. Fogarty, M.D., a world-renowned cardiovascular surgeon, inventor, entrepreneur and vintner.