{"id":1054155,"date":"2026-06-27T20:26:35","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T20:26:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1054155\/"},"modified":"2026-06-27T20:26:35","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T20:26:35","slug":"a-phd-students-nerve-healing-polymer-just-raised-e60m-to-take-on-the-us-operating-room-tfn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1054155\/","title":{"rendered":"A PhD student&#8217;s nerve-healing polymer just raised \u20ac60M to take on the US operating room \u2014 TFN"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Paris-based TISSIUM has secured a \u20ac60M financing package, a completed \u20ac30M Series D2, plus a \u20ac30M facility from the European Investment Bank, to fuel its US commercial rollout and advance a pipeline spanning nerve repair, hernia, and cardiovascular surgery.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Its first product, COAPTIUM\u00ae CONNECT, is the only FDA-authorised sutureless nerve repair system in the world; a 12-patient clinical study showed 100% of participants regained full function and reported no pain one year after surgery.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>TISSIUM has now raised over $200M since 2013, entering the peripheral nerve repair devices market, valued at $13.4B today and projected to reach $30.5B by 2033.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>For decades, surgeons repairing a severed nerve have done the same thing: stitch two fragile ends back together under a microscope, hoping the suture needle doesn\u2019t damage the tissue it is trying to heal. A recent meta-analysis found that <a href=\"https:\/\/news.mit.edu\/2025\/ushering-new-era-suture-free-tissue-reconstruction-better-healing-0801\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">only 54% of patients<\/a> achieve meaningful recovery with that method.<a href=\"https:\/\/www.tissium.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tissium.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">TISSIUM<\/a>, a Paris-based medtech built on research from MIT and Harvard\u2019s Brigham and Women\u2019s Hospital, has spent over a decade building the alternative, and today it closed a \u20ac60 million financing package to bring it to scale.<\/p>\n<p>From MIT lab to the operating room<\/p>\n<p>TISSIUM was co-founded in 2013 by <a href=\"https:\/\/fr.linkedin.com\/in\/chrisbancel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Christophe Bancel<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/fr.linkedin.com\/in\/maria-pereira-7261a810\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Maria Pereira<\/a>, who invented the company\u2019s core polymer while completing her PhD through the MIT Portugal Program in the labs of Professor Robert Langer and Professor Jeffrey Karp. The company is headquartered in Paris, with a US office in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and a manufacturing facility in Roncq, France.<\/p>\n<p>Its flagship product, COAPTIUM\u00ae CONNECT, works by fitting a small 3D-printed polymer chamber around the severed nerve ends, without penetrating them. A liquid bioresorbable polymer is squeezed around the edges and cured with a blue light pen, sealing the nerve in place while fibres regenerate through the chamber. The device dissolves completely over months.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In a 12-patient clinical study of digital nerve injuries, every participant regained full flexion and extension and reported no pain at one year. COAPTIUM\u00ae CONNECT entered commercial use in the US in November 2025 and today holds FDA De Novo authorisation as the only system of its kind.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis first product illustrates the technical versatility and potential of the TISSIUM polymer platform, not only in peripheral nerve repair where other solutions are currently under development, but also in other surgical applications, such as atraumatic hernia repair and cardiovascular sealing,\u201d says Pereira.<\/p>\n<p>Taking on a $13B market<\/p>\n<p>The nerve repair market is not empty. Axogen dominates with a $1.67B market cap and $215M in trailing revenue, and its AVANCE Nerve Graft received full FDA biologics approval in December 2025, a milestone the company says will drive at least 18% revenue growth in 2026.<a href=\"https:\/\/www.integralife.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Integra LifeSciences holds strong positions in nerve conduits and wraps. Both, however, rely on biological material from human or animal donors, and both still require sutures to complete the repair.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>While Axogen and Integra compete in grafts and conduits, TISSIUM\u2019s fully synthetic, light-activated polymer never contacts the nerve\u2019s interior and leaves nothing permanent behind.<\/p>\n<p>The deal: equity plus EIB venture debt<\/p>\n<p>The \u20ac60M package has two parts. A \u20ac30M Series D2, completed at the end of 2025 with new and existing international investors, including US-based backers, brings total funding raised to over $200M across eight rounds.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Previous rounds include a \u20ac50M Series C led by Cathay Health in 2024, with long-term backer Sofinnova Partners also participating, the same firm that backed <a href=\"https:\/\/techfundingnews.com\/nvidia-makes-investment-in-55-4m-funding-round-of-this-french-surgical-robotics-startup\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Moon Surgical\u2019s $55.4M round<\/a> featuring Nvidia. Investor names for the D2 were not publicly disclosed.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>An additional facility of up to \u20ac30M from the European Investment Bank arrives in three \u20ac10M tranches tied to commercial, clinical, and financing milestones, structured as a mix of dilutive and venture debt financing.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>TISSIUM expects to draw the first tranche before the end of June 2026. The EIB backing follows its recent pattern of supporting European deeptech and medtech champions, having similarly backed <a href=\"https:\/\/techfundingnews.com\/eib-invests-e20m-in-protembis-a-german-startup-that-develops-brain-protection-device\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Protembis with \u20ac20M<\/a> for its cerebral embolic protection system and <a href=\"https:\/\/techfundingnews.com\/ryvu-therapeutics-raises-e22m-from-eib-to-make-new-cancer-treatments\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Ryvu Therapeutics with \u20ac22M<\/a> for oncology pipeline development.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis financing marks an important milestone in TISSIUM\u2019s evolution. The support of both leading international investors and the European Investment Bank reflects confidence in our technology, our strategy and our ability to bring meaningful innovation to patients,\u201d says Bancel.<\/p>\n<p>The capital funds US commercial execution on COAPTIUM\u00ae CONNECT, advancement of ECLIPSIUM (its hernia repair product, which received an FDA Investigational Device Exemption in September 2025 and has completed European patient enrollment for CE Mark submission), and continued platform expansion across six pipeline products spanning three surgical verticals.<\/p>\n<p>The global peripheral nerve repair devices market was valued at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.verifiedmarketresearch.com\/product\/peripheral-nerve-repair-devices-market\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">$13.4B in 2025 and is projected to reach $30.5B by 2033<\/a>, growing at a 14.6% CAGR, driven by rising trauma incidence and a shift toward bioabsorbable, atraumatic repair.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Whether TISSIUM can build a commercial organisation fast enough to win surgeons\u2019 loyalty before Axogen cements its expanded FDA-authorised portfolio in the same operating rooms is the defining question for the next 18 months.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The science is proven. The \u20ac60M buys the time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paris-based TISSIUM has secured a \u20ac60M financing package, a completed \u20ac30M Series D2, plus a \u20ac30M facility from&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1054156,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3094],"tags":[51,3134,299,126609,5036,39265,12,3322,16,15],"class_list":["post-1054155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entrepreneurship","tag-business","tag-entrepreneurship","tag-europe","tag-female-led","tag-funding","tag-medtech","tag-news","tag-startups","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116823955265868221","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1054155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1054155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1054155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1054156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1054155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1054155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1054155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}