Founders: Christiane Theda and Alex Newton

Placing a catheter into the vein of a critically ill newborn is one of the most delicate procedures in intensive care, and the tools clinicians rely on were largely designed for adults. Navi Medical Technologies, a Melbourne and Boston medtech building vascular-access technology for the smallest patients, has raised $6.8 million to commercialise its device in the United States.

The round was led by a $4 million cheque from ANZ healthcare investor KP Rx, with existing backers Innovation Victoria (formerly Breakthrough Victoria) and Pacific Channel following on. It takes Navi's total funding to roughly $9.2 million, after a $2.4 million raise in mid-2023 supported by Medtech Actuator, Artesian and the Victorian government fund.

Navi's product, Neonav, helps clinicians accurately place and monitor central venous access devices, the catheters used to deliver nutrition, fluids and medication to premature and critically ill infants. Getting that placement right, and keeping it right, is notoriously difficult in neonatal and paediatric care, where the margin for error is measured in millimetres and the existing technology was never built for patients that small.

Neonav has secured US FDA clearance and is in clinical evaluation at two leading US paediatric hospitals, with American sales expected to begin this year. The capital is earmarked for scaling manufacturing, building out the US commercial team, and partnering with children's hospitals as Navi works to set a new standard of care in paediatric vascular access.