Pomegra
Barcelona's Anaconda Biomed closes a $56 million financing round led by Omega Funds, putting it on track to finish its pivotal U.S. trial for a funnel catheter designed to reduce death and disability from large vessel occlusion stroke.
Key Takeaways
- Omega Funds leads the $56M round; Spain's FOCO fund joins as a new backer alongside returning investors Asabys, Ysios Capital, and CDTI.
- The ANA Funnel Catheter already holds CE Mark approval, earned in June 2025; the 327-patient ATHENA pivotal IDE trial is actively enrolling at up to 40 centers.
- Proceeds fund ATHENA completion and further product development, with FDA clearance as the strategic endpoint.
Lead
Anaconda Biomed, the Barcelona-based medtech developing next-generation thrombectomy catheters for acute ischemic stroke, announced the close of a $56 million financing on September 23, 2026. Omega Funds, a transatlantic healthcare-focused firm with prior stakes in the company, led the round. The capital will fund completion of the ATHENA pivotal IDE study - a 327-subject, prospective, randomized trial - and broader product development across Anaconda's funnel catheter platform.
What Does the ANA Funnel Catheter Actually Do?
The ANA Funnel Catheter solves a specific mechanical problem in stroke intervention. When physicians use stent retrievers to pull clots from blocked cerebral arteries, fragments can break off and occlude downstream vessels - an event that negates much of the benefit of the procedure. Anaconda's device deploys a radiopaque, self-expanding funnel covered with a continuous sealing coating directly at the clot site. The funnel temporarily arrests local blood flow while simultaneous aspiration removes the clot and any loose embolic material in a single pass.
The device targets large vessel occlusion (LVO) stroke, a severe subtype caused by blockage in a major cerebral artery. LVO accounts for a minority of all strokes but carries disproportionate mortality and disability burden. Standard-of-care thrombectomy, though proven, leaves substantial room for improved first-pass reperfusion. Anaconda's clinical data from the earlier ANAIS study showed high reperfusion and first-pass success rates, forming the evidentiary basis for the CE Mark the company received in June 2025.
Why Does This Round Size Matter for a Late-Stage Trial?
Pivotal IDE studies in the U.S. are expensive, multi-site undertakings. ATHENA will run at up to 40 centers across the United States and internationally, with enrollment targeting 327 patients presenting within 24 hours of stroke symptom onset. Those logistics - site activation, independent core lab adjudication, patient recruitment, data management - carry costs that a smaller bridge round would not cover.
At $56 million, this financing is sized to carry Anaconda through trial completion and into a regulatory submission without a forced interim raise. For context, the company closed a €15 million Series A back in 2017 with many of the same investors; the difference in magnitude reflects nine years of development, a European approval, and the cost of running a randomized pivotal study in the United States.
The round also signals continued conviction from Omega Funds, whose participation spans from that 2017 Series A through to leading this close. New entrant FOCO - Spain's co-investment fund managed by COFIDES - adds public-sector capital and reflects Spain's interest in anchoring a domestically founded medtech through its most critical validation phase. Returning backers Asabys (via Sabadell Asabys II), Ysios Capital, and CDTI (through SICC Innvierte) complete the syndicate.
ATHENA Trial Progress
Anaconda enrolled its first U.S. patient in ATHENA in April 2025, roughly nine months after the FDA granted IDE approval in July 2024. The trial had been targeting completion of enrollment in the first half of 2026; the new capital should ensure that timeline holds. Successful completion and a strong primary endpoint would put the company in position to seek FDA clearance and enter a U.S. commercial stroke market where Medtronic, Stryker, and Penumbra currently dominate the interventional neuro-thrombectomy space.
Competitive and Clinical Context
The stroke device market is technically competitive but not yet commoditized. Stent retrievers and aspiration catheters remain standard of care, but no single technique has achieved consistently superior first-pass outcomes across center types and operator volumes. Anaconda is betting that a dedicated flow-restriction layer - rather than aspiration alone or retrieval alone - can move that needle measurably in a randomized setting.
CE Mark with commercial traction in Europe provides real-world data alongside the trial, a dynamic that regulators and acquirers typically view favorably.
Outlook
Anaconda enters the final stretch of its pivotal program with a fully funded balance sheet and a European-approved device already in clinical use. The ATHENA readout will determine whether the funnel catheter's mechanism translates into statistically superior outcomes versus standard of care. A positive result would set up either a U.S. commercial launch or an acquisition conversation with one of the larger medtech strategics that have consistently bought proven stroke platforms. A neutral or negative result would force a difficult conversation about design iteration on a depleted runway.
The trial is running. The clock is moving. The $56 million means Anaconda will not run short of capital before the answer arrives.
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