Ovalis' Reverse Spin

01 Jul 2005

Most small companies grow for a while and then sell off to a larger acquiror. Ovalis, an intriguing start-up in the PFO space, has reversed the process, beginning as part of Abbott Laboratories' Abbott Vascular Division before being spun off as an independent company.

For much of the past decade, the typical trajectory for start-up device companies has been to raise a couple of rounds of venture capital, progress to a certain stage of development, and then become part of one of the large global device companies. Now, device start-up Ovalis Inc. has reversed the process, birthing itself from a large company, Abbott Laboratories Inc. , to become a stand-alone start-up, thanks to venture capital firms De Novo Ventures and Latterell Venture Partners (LVP).

Actually, the roots of Ovalis go back to another device start-up, Integrated Vascular Systems Inc. (IVS), a femoral artery closure...