What Happens After the Device IPO?

Perhaps a day once existed when medical device investors could call an IPO purely an exiting event. But for years now device investors—and their cousins on the biopharmaceutical side—have recognized an IPO for what it often is—an opportunity to get a little breathing room by having someone else help to pay the bills.

Even after the IPO, device VCs frequently maintain their stakes in their publicly traded companies until those businesses begin launching products and gaining value. That runway will only get longer...