On February 6, 2023 Approxima, MedTech spin-off of the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering of the Politecnico di Milano, announced the closing of a 1.6 million euros seed financing round to develop a minimally invasive tricuspid valve repair system based on a right ventricular reshaping approach to treat patients with tricuspid regurgitation.

Approxima was founded in 2020 by Michal Jaworek, CEO, and Edoardo Maroncelli, CTO, who began to develop the idea as PhD students and research assistants at the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering, with the involvement of Riccardo Vismara and Gianfranco Beniamino Fiore, co-founders and scientific advisors of the company. The seed round was led by Panakès Partners alongside Club degli Investitori and otherbusiness angels. The funds raised will be deployed tofurther advance the technology through pre-clinical testing and towards clinical trials.

Together with the funding, the company has recruited key team members with extensive experience in the field.

Dr. Paolo Denti – cardiac surgeon from San Raffaele Hospital (Milan, Italy), member of PCR Tricuspid Focus Group, European Society of Cardiothoracic Surgery, European Society of Cardiology and European and Italian Societies of Interventional Cardiology – has been appointed CMO. He is an expert in minimally invasive cardiac surgery and an experienced operator in percutaneous technologies in aortic, mitral and tricuspid fields. He served as a principal investigator in various clinical trials and has constantly the honor of podium presentations at the most important international congresses as an invited speaker. During his career he contributed to the preclinical development and served as an operator in First in Human trials of innovative percutaneous technologies.

Umberto Pasquali has been appointed as Chairman of the Board. He brings over 20 years of experience in business development, project management, operations and finance in medical devices field acquired in executive-level positions at Lima Corporate and LivaNova.

Barbara Castellano will join the Board as Director, representing Panakès Partners. Barbara brings a deep expertise in the cardiovascular space as well as a broad knowledge of the medical devices sector, acquired as former Director of Clinical Affairs, Certifications, Registrations and Quality Assurance at CID (now Alvimedica) and as former Director of Business Development & former Global Marketing Director for the Heart Valves at Sorin (now LivaNova).