Boston-based skin anti-aging technology company cytollis biosystems (hereinafter referred to as "cytrellis") recently double-handedly, the scenery is unique - first in July, the US FDA approved their first proprietary product, that is, the ellacor system using micro-coring technology, providing strong support and access to the first commercial promotion, and then announced in September to obtain a round of 50 million US dollars financing. To date, Cytrellis has raised $86.1 million in financing.
The round was led by D1 Capital Partners, with participation from existing institutional investors Arch Venture Partners and PPM Health Sciences, as well as another new investor, Sands Capital. This funding will be used to develop the cytollis commercial infrastructure and support additional clinical research, product development and manufacturing.
It is worth mentioning that arch venture started from the cytrellis a round, each round of capital injection to accompany the run, has been three consecutive rounds of shooting. What is the magic of cytrellis that can accompany top venture capital firms along the way?
Cytrellis' leadership team has decades of experience in the development and commercialization of medical devices.
Current leadership structure
Although the company's leadership team has changed over time, the company's "soul figures" Karen Cronholm and Diane Marcou are still there.
Karen Cronholm is the Cytrellis CEO who has over 25 years of experience in the life sciences and medical device industries. She directs the marketing and product management of multiple beauty product lines at cynosure for the treatment of cellulite and cellulite reduction. She built the company's operations team, improved the company's efficiency, and launched a variety of products that created high value for the company. Previously, she was head of marketing for emd millipore lab solutions business. During emd millipore's 12-year tenure, she successfully developed many new technologies and held various positions such as marketing manager, R&D scientist and quality manager. Karen holds a Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of New Hampshire and an MBA from Northeastern University.
Diane Marcou, who is currently cytolliscfo, has provided financial and strategic advisory services to several life sciences companies, including fractyl laboratories inc., t2 biosystems, taris biomedical, byallaccounts, inc., ivenix and topera medical. She has worked in private and public sector organizations for over 20 years, assisting firms in gaining recognition from investment institutions on several occasions, and has extensive experience in handling investor-business relationships. Diane earned her CPA from PwC (formerly Coopers & Lybrand) and a bachelor's degree in business administration from Boston College.
Karen and Diane are like captains and helmsmen, driving the Cynosure through the waves from the beginning of the Cynosure.
Traditional photoelectric means can repair damaged skin, but their effectiveness is limited or requires a long healing time, and may not be able to significantly reduce or remove loose skin, patients must undergo surgery to remove unwanted skin, reduce skin sagging, and this technology is operated by doctors, patient constitution and other factors, there are scars, complications and other medical safety hazards.
Cytrellis' product technology mitigates these risks. Cytrellis' first product, Ellacor, which was approved by the US FDA this time, is a new proprietary system using micro-coring technology, which uses micro-excision skin technology to create a new way of treating dermatology in addition to optoelectronics and surgery. This technology is not based on traditional techniques, but on energy-based therapy.
This treatment is surgery-free, does not leave scars, works quickly, is effective and natural, and because no heat is used during the treatment, healing is usually faster than with energy-based devices. Used by medical professionals to treat moderate to severe wrinkles in adults with fitzpatrick i-iv type skin of 22 years of age or older.
fitzpatrick-pathank sun-reactive skin type
Arterial network mapping
Ellacor includes a handheld device and consumables that precisely handle large areas of skin in a gentle manner, and the device also includes a skin coring mechanism, an energyless needle punching tool that mechanically drills out tiny skin columns, each less than half a millimeter in diameter, which penetrate deep into the skin and leave gaps, which then come together and heal, triggering the remodeling phase of collagen for a firming effect. Moreover, the operator can precisely control the position and depth of the micro-cutting according to the user's needs.
Doctor's operation scene Image source: instagram
According to the data of the Cytrellis official website, 80 experimenters after receiving this minimally invasive surgery for 90 days, the skin tissue healed well, and the pain level during the treatment was 0.36, which was similar to being bitten by a mosquito, the pain was very light, and the overall improvement satisfaction reached 93%.
Clinical effects of cytrellis treatment for 90 days Image source: cytrellis video profile
Ellacor has many advantages. From the safety level, no surgery, no scars, higher safety; from the technical operation point of view, it requires professional medical personnel to operate, but the operation is simpler, the use of the scene is rich; from the user experience point of view, do not worry about surgical risks, etc., the acceptance is higher; the effect is fast and obvious, the recovery cycle is short, it will not affect the patient's work and life; the presentation effect is more natural; it can avoid laser complications such as scars, pigmentation, and blisters, and at the same time, according to the user's needs, it can also improve the aging loose skin of the face or other parts of the body according to the user's needs.
New York dermatologist Doris Day even suggested: "If you use ellacor maintenance when you are young, you will save a lot of plastic surgery costs when you are old." "I have to say that such a view is very tempting for beauty lovers."
But we also have to see the other side of the coin. First of all, cytollis' products are relatively single, and at present, only ellacor, which is slightly monotonous and slightly single-function than the dazzling product lines of other medical aesthetic device institutions. However, from another point of view, "one centimeter in width and ten thousand meters in depth" and focusing on tempering a field may be the reason why cytollis can be favored by capital.
Secondly, ellacor is still too new, and its possible problems and risks can only be tested by waiting time and more practices.
Finally, ellacor works well, but it is not a substitute for facelifts, as this technique acts only on the skin, in addition to trimming excess skin, it also involves lifting and repositioning sagging muscle tissue, unable to adjust and repair facial muscles or fascia.
Cytrellis is rarely publicized, but it is not difficult for us to see from the financing history that capital has accompanied and supported it, as well as the affirmation of new capital. From the perspective of financing rhythm, cytrellis completes a round of financing every 3 years, moving at a uniform speed, which can be described as a still water deep flow.
Wine aroma is also afraid of deep alleys, while cultivating internal strength to temper products, cytrellis has also tried to show it to the outside world in the past two years, emerging in the big competition, and doing a good job of "warm-up exercise" for subsequent commercialization. In 2020, Cytrellis participated in the "Innovation Shark Tank" competition during the IMPAS Global Market Summit, where he won the IMCAS Innovation Runner-up of the Year and the IMCAS Innovation Potential Award 2020. In 2021, Cytrellis was nominated as a finalist in the prestigious Terra2 Solutions Skin Health Innovation Competition.
In July this year, Ellacor was approved by the US FDA, which provided strong support for its first commercial promotion.
At present, the company's products have not yet landed on a large scale, and the types of positions it recruits are mainly technical research and sales personnel, closely focusing on the product and sales ends. According to cytollis, the company intends to work with key doctors in the industry and is expected to be fully launched in 2022. The arterial network will also continue to pay attention to cytollis dynamics.