Durham-based Duke spinout Deep Blue Medical raises $7M in Series A1 funding, will add products

DURHAM – Deep Blue Medical Advances, developer of a novel hernia mesh known as T-Line®, has raised more than $7 million in capital, according to an SEC filing filed late last month.

A statement released by the company noted the funding as the firm’s Series A1 funding round.

And according to the filing, 113 investors participated.

The company last raised money in 2021, raising nearly $3.5 million according to a filing and prior reporting from WRAL TechWire. That followed a $1.57 million debt funding round the month before, according to filings.

In 2020, the company received clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to begin to sell the hernia mesh product commercially.

“This investment will allow Deep Blue Medical to expand our commercial sales team to bring this novel ventral hernia mesh to more surgeons,” said said Bill Perry, CEO of Deep Blue Medical Advances, Inc., in a statement. “In addition, we will continue accelerated development of several additional products.”

Perry also told WRAL TechWire that the company’s Durham office is in the Chesterfield Building and this is the firm’s headquarters location.

“We are hiring several new sales reps in advance of a full commercial launch next year,” Perry told WRAL TechWire.

Deep Blue Medical Advances lures $3.44M in equity for hernia repair tech

Building on prior funding

Deep Blue was founded in 2014 by Howard Levinson, MD, a Duke University plastic surgeon, according to a Duke Office of Translation & Commercialization (OTC) website.

“I have worked closely with Duke OTC to protect intellectual property, navigate entrepreneurial activities, and to raise non-dilutive grant funds to advance ideas,” Levinson is quoted on the Duke OTC website. “Duke OTC’s support has been critical to our success and is a clear distinguishing factor between Duke University and its existing peer institutes.”

The company also previously received support in the form of a loan from the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, according to prior reporting from Barry Teater, a writer for the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, published by WRAL TechWire.

“We look forward to working closely with the Deep Blue leadership team to help bring their innovative and clinically needed pipeline of surgical products to market as we draw on our past experience of effectively launching important new medical devices with high growth companies” said Dr. Gary Gershony, founding general partner of BayMed Venture Partners, which led the Series A1 financing.

The company’s website also notes a San Francisco location.