Leadership: Adam Kadlec, president and CEO
Headquarters: Milwaukee (remote)
Website: rivermarkmedical.com
What it does: Medical device designer
Founded: 2020
Employees: 3
Next goals: Complete a U.S.-based clinical study
Fundraising: $36.5 million
Milwaukee-based medtech startup Rivermark Medical has emerged from stealth mode and announced a $30 million series C funding round.
The company’s flagship product, the FloStent System, is a minimally invasive device designed to restore urinary function to patients dealing with Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia, the medical term for an enlarged prostate. BPH can cause bladder, urinary tract or kidney problems, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Typically, patients with BPH only have two medical options: taking a daily medication or having a surgery to remove any obstructing tissue.
“There’s a big difference in invasiveness between taking a medication every day and having surgery,” said Dr. Adam Kadlec, president and CEO of Rivermark Medical. “What we’ve done at Rivermark is create a medical device, a stent, with the goal of being as noninvasive as we can.”
Kadlec is a urologist who spent several years working as a clinician for Aurora Health Care.
During his time at Aurora, Kadlec worked closely with the organization’s innovation team. This is where he started learning about the innovation process, angel investing and running a business.
“It’s very hard to actualize an idea in health care,” said Kadlec. “It’s a highly regulated industry, the stakes can be very high, and there can be little problems that aren’t worth fixing from a financial perspective.”
Through discussions with collaborator Andy Doraiswamy, who has more than 20 years of experience in the medtech industry, Kadlec decided to branch out and start his own company in 2020.
“The initial idea of an implantable device retrieval was something I’d been thinking of for years,” said Kadlec. “The final embodiment didn’t come until we’d done some of our first clinical trials.”
So far, Rivermark has completed two clinical trials outside the United States for the FloStent System. In 2021, the company completed a $2.5 million Series A funding round. Less than a year later, the startup raised another $4 million, according to Kadlec.
The latest $30 million in funding will allow Rivermark to conduct a clinical study here in the United States and eventually secure FDA clearance for the FloStent System. The study is scheduled to begin in the first half of 2025.
To support this goal, Rivermark will grow from a team of three people to about 10 over the next year.
The hope is to have the FloStent System commercially available by 2028, Kadlec said.
“For a lot of physicians, it’s sort of living the dream to have one of your ideas make it to market,” he said. “It’s hard to learn how to do it. I think a lot of people are held back by not knowing that innovation is a process.”
While Rivermark Medical remains completely focused on its FloStent System for now, Kadlec said he’s always looking for “new ideas and concepts.”
“It’s certainly on my radar to continue to create and innovate,” he said.
