Circle Cardiovascular Imaging Completes Substantial Financing Round from BDC Capital and Others to Support International Business Expansion

CALGARY, March 24, 2016 /CNW Telbec/ - Circle Cardiovascular Inc., the world-leading developer of innovative cardiac MR (CMR) and cardiac CT (CCT) post-processing software announces the completion of a substantial financing round with participation from existing investors including BDC Capital and new investors, The Accelerate Fund and Epic Capital Management Inc.

Circle plans to use the proceeds of this financing to build on its industry-leading platform and expand its commercial footprint kicked off recently with the Global Licensing and Distribution Agreement signed with GE Healthcare.

"The partnership with GE Healthcare is a strong validation of Circle's technology and it provides an opportunity to significantly accelerate Circle's growth as it immediately broadens its technology reach and impact on patients. This deal is another major step toward expanding Circle's dominant commercial position in the CMR space," said Amine Benmoussa, Principal with the BDC Capital Healthcare Venture Fund. 

"Circle Cardiovascular is an example of a Canadian tech company that identified a need, built a strong core team with relevant experience, and executed well," said Martin Vetter, General Partner and Director of the Accelerate Fund. "We're pleased to join BDC Capital, Epic Capital, many existing investors, and now GE Healthcare, in support of Circle's goals to improve cardiac care and patient outcomes."

Best-In-Class cmr⁴² cardiovascular post-processing software package contains a set of comprehensive, easy-to-use modules for viewing and analyzing cardiac MR images for both standalone and enterprise server configurations. Over 600 sites in 35 countries are already interpreting hundreds of thousands of cardiac exams annually using Circle's software to increase diagnostic speed and accuracy, reduce cost and improve patient care.

Greg Ogrodnick, CEO of Circle Cardiovascular Imaging, said, "BDC Capital and our other existing investors have been very supportive of our venture and connected us to a wider network. Their funding has been instrumental in helping us continue to provide highly accurate, comprehensive, efficient, and innovative cardiovascular post-processing software suite for the viewing and analyzing of CMR and CCT images."

About Circle
Circle Cardiovascular develops and markets cardiac-image analytical software for the rapidly evolving cardiac magnetic resonance ("CMR") and cardiac computed tomography ("CCT") industries. CMR/CCT images can provide a wealth of information about the patient's cardiac condition such as functional parameters, flow and infarction. Extracting this information and presenting it in an integrated fashion to the physician can however be a time-consuming task. The Company's lead software products, cvi42 and report42, improve workflow and diagnostic accuracy by taking this highly complex and time consuming process making it simple, accurate, easy and convenient, saving time and increasing productivity for cardiologists.                             

For more information please visit our website at http://www.circlecvi.com.

About BDC Capital
A subsidiary of the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC), BDC Capital offers a full spectrum of specialized financing and investment solutions to help Canadian entrepreneurs achieve their full growth potential. With more than $1.6 billion under management, BDC Capital takes a strategic, patient approach to nurture companies' development over the long term.

BDC Capital's Healthcare Venture Fund invests in transformative Canadian companies that dramatically increase healthcare productivity by reducing healthcare costs while improving patient health and the experienced team invests in drugs, devices, diagnostics and digital health sectors. For more information, please visit www.bdccapital.ca/health.

SOURCE Business Development Bank of Canada

For Circle: Jocelyn B. Symborski, [email protected], 1-403-453-2061; For BDC Capital: Maria Constantinescu, [email protected], 1-844-625-8321