San Diego’s Sotera Wireless says it has raised $12.2 million in a Series D round of financing led by the Singapore-based global fund EDB Investments.
Sotera says it also signed a commercial agreement with Cerner, the Kansas City, MO-based giant that provides complete health IT systems for hospitals and other medical organizations to integrate and manage all electronic medical records, physician orders, and financial information. Cerner’s investment arm, Cerner Capital, joined the latest round as a new investor, along with existing investors Qualcomm Ventures, Sanderling Ventures, Intel Capital, and the West Health Investment Fund.
In a statement, Sotera says it has asked the FDA in August to clear its mobile vital signs monitoring technology for the U.S. market. If all goes as planned, funding from the current financing round will be used to support the launch of Sotera’s “ViSi Mobile System” in early 2012.
As we reported last year, Sotera’s ViSi system enables hospital ICUs to continuously monitor critical care patients on general hospital floors. The system tracks a patient’s blood pressure, respiration, temperature, blood oxygen levels and heart rate. ViSi collects data from two sensors—one on the chest and one on the thumb—connected to a wristband device slightly larger than a sports watch, which maintains a Wi Fi connection to a hospital workstation.
By continuously charting a patient’s vital signs, the system can show whether a patient’s condition is deteriorating and serves as a kind of early warning system for developing problems.
In Sotera’s statement today, EDB Investments chief Chu Swee-Yeok, says, “Health systems worldwide are facing the challenge of an increasingly high-risk and frail patient population. We believe Sotera offers a disruptive platform that will provide clinicians with the visibility they need for pre-emptive and preventative care. EDBI looks forward to actively assisting Sotera to tap into new business opportunities in the Asia-Pacific market to expand its global footprint.”
The latest financing round brings Sotera’s total venture backing to roughly $46 million, according to VentureWire.