Kardium lands C$31.25M from Ottawa to double Vancouver-area heart device output
What's the deal? Kardium, a Burnaby, B.C.-based medical device developer, has secured a C$31.25 million grant from the Government of CanadaDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → to expand its manufacturing capabilities in the greater Vancouver area. The funding, from the federal Strategic Response Fund, supports a C$125 million project to more than double the company's clean room facilities.
What's the endgame? Kardium makes a catheter that threads up a patient's femoral vein into the heart, expanding into a globe just three centimetres in diameter to pinpoint and zap the cells causing atrial fibrillation, a common heart problem. The company's clean room space will grow from 10,000 to 25,000 square feet as it scales up production.
Why now? The privately held, 19-year-old company plans to go public as early as the second half of 2027. It struggled to raise money in Canada but drew nearly C$500 million from foreign backers, including Fidelity, T. Rowe Price AssociatesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, and Qatar's sovereign wealth fund.
Chief executive officer Kevin Chaplin framed the grant as a step toward independence. "We're building Kardium to be an independent company and in order to do that we want to have control of our own destiny," he said. "That means controlling our own manufacturing."
Where it's headed: Burnaby is one of two manufacturing sites. Kardium plans to open a second facility in Costa Rica — a major centre for medical device production — by 2029, which will ultimately supply a majority of its devices globally.
By the numbers: The grant ranks in the 96th percentile among all-time health grant rounds in Canada, based on a sample of 699. Kardium now has more than 700 employees, having added 200 this year for manufacturing.
The signal: This is the eighth Strategic Response Fund commitment in B.C., out of 35 to date across Canada's biomanufacturing and life sciences sector — and the last four have all gone to the province. Recent recipients include Aspect Biosystems and an incubator at Providence Health CareDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, underscoring Ottawa's growing bet on B.C. as a life sciences hub.
Read more: ca.headtopics.com
Image credit: Kardium
