TransMedics

3i led a US$30 million series C round and contributed US$14 million of funding for Massachusetts based TransMedics Inc in February 2006. Having invested in the series B round in 2003, 3i's position grew to a 24.6% equity stake as a result.

Founded in 1998, TransMedics is a medical devices company which has developed a unique system enabling a first in transplantation - a "living organ transplant".

By maintaining organs in a warm, functioning state outside of the body, TransMedics' Organ Care System is designed to optimise organ health and reduce the risk of organ failure. It also allows continuous clinical evaluation, and increases the amount of time an organ can survive outside the body over traditional cold preservation techniques.

3i has been an active investor in TransMedics, working in partnership with the management team and its scientific advisers and using its European relationships to support TransMedics' work with leading transplant centres in the UK and Germany.

TransMedics' technology improves organ availability for the growing population of patients with end-stage organ failure. Recently it enabled a new milestone to be reached in transplant medicine when the world's first beating heart transplant was successfully performed at the Bad Oeynhausen Clinic in Germany.