A San Jose company that makes polymer foam which expands inside blood vessels has raised $10 million — not to scale a product, but to pay for the years of patient follow-up that will decide whether its lead device ever gets a US label.

Shape Memory Medical said on Aug 23, 2026 that it had closed $10 million in convertible note financing led by August Global Partners. Taiwania Capital came in as a new investor, alongside existing backers HBM Healthcare Investments, Earlybird Venture Capital and WexMed II. No valuation was disclosed. Deal feeds listing the round as straight debt are imprecise: the instrument is a convertible note, which converts into equity at a later priced round. Proceeds go to patient follow-up and data collection in the AAA-SHAPE pivotal trial and to advancing the FLAGSHIP feasibility study.

What the company does

The core technology is a shape memory polymer — a low-density, porous embolic foam that is compressed small enough to travel through a catheter and self-expands on contact with blood, forming organized thrombus to block a vessel. The commercial line is the IMPEDE and IMPEDE-FX embolization plugs, which carry FDA clearance, a CE mark and Japanese approval. IMPEDE-FX RapidFill is CE marked but remains investigational in the United States, as does the False Lumen Embolization System for aortic dissection. Products are approved in more than 40 countries and have been used in over 3,500 patients, with EU MDR Class III certification secured in December 2025.

The numbers behind the round

Ten million dollars is roughly a quarter of the $38 million Series C the company closed in March 2024, which was led by Earlybird and raised to run AAA-SHAPE and expand sales and marketing. This one is deliberately narrower. AAA-SHAPE finished enrolling 180 patients across 48 centers in the US, Europe and New Zealand at a 2:1 randomization, comparing endovascular aneurysm repair plus sac management with IMPEDE-FX RapidFill against EVAR alone. Follow-up runs five years. FLAGSHIP, a first-in-human study of the false lumen system, carries a two-year follow-up.

Why the timing matters

Enrollment is the visible milestone; follow-up is the expensive one. A company that has finished dosing patients but still owes regulators five years of data sits in an awkward window — too far along to pitch a growth story, too early to price a round against an approval. A convertible note is the standard answer to that problem, deferring valuation until the data arrives. Chief executive Ted Ruppel framed the raise as strengthening the company position ahead of what he called a potentially transformative period, while August Global Partners Davian Sim described the company as being at an inflection point with AAA-SHAPE fully enrolled. The addition of Taiwania Capital, a Taiwan-backed fund, also points at Asian commercialization for a product family already cleared in Japan. What the money does not buy is a bigger commercial footprint. That decision has been pushed to whichever round follows the readout.

Source

BioSpace — "Shape Memory Medical Secures $10 Million Financing Led by August Global Partners to Advance Aortic Clinical Programs"