Leuven-based Capricorn Partners has joined a $90 million financing round for Paris-headquartered HighLife.
This massive investment (around €80 million) will support HighLife’s mission to make more treatment options available for mitral regurgitation – a severe heart condition affecting millions globally.
“HighLife has developed a product that is unique in its class, showing excellent clinical performance, accessible to the broadest set of patients,” shares Filip Pintelon, investment partner overseeing Health at Capricorn Partners. The firm sees the investment as an opportunity to support a technology that directly addresses a significant unmet need for patients with very few remaining options.
Founded in 2010 by Georg Börtlein – who previously co-founded structural heart pioneer CoreValve before it was acquired by Medtronic for close to $1 billion – HighLife developed the Transcatheter Mitral Valve Replacement (TMVR) System, which utilises an innovative "valve-in-ring" concept. Because both components are implanted percutaneously, the system effectively mimics the surgical gold standard (an annuloplasty ring and a valve) without the need for highly invasive open-heart surgery.
Co-led by M&A heavyweights Andera Partners, Sofinnova Partners, Supernova Invest and Mérieux Equity Partners, the funding round follows a string of several regulatory wins this year (2026). In January, HighLife secured CE Mark approval for its TMVR system, enabling a limited market release in Europe and the initiation of its pivotal clinical study in the US. In July, the company earned another CE Mark for its next-generation Clarity Valve, designed to reduce the risk of left ventricular outflow tract (LVOT) obstruction – the primary barrier to broader TMVR adoption.
“Transcatheter mitral valve replacement is reaching a critical inflexion point. With differentiated technology, a highly experienced team and a strong financial foundation, we believe HighLife is particularly well positioned to establish itself as a global leader in this new therapeutic approach,” comments Rémi Spagnol, partner at Supernova Invest.
The European Investment Bank, VI Partners and BNP Paribas Développement are also participating in the funding round.
Rewarding founders who aren’t afraid
For early investors like Sofinnova, which originally led the company’s Series A in 2017, the sheer size and crossover composition of this group validate a nearly decade-long bet.
When Georg first brought his TMVR concept to Sofinnova (which spent years building CoreValve with him) in the mid-2010s, mitral regurgitation had been notoriously underserved in the medtech space, hampered by highly complex therapies with steep barriers to adoption. His technology offered a solution: strip the problem down to its first principles and design a system far simpler than anything else on the market.
Convinced by this vision and their shared history at CoreValve, Sofinnova led HighLife’s €12.3m Series A round. “We saw in Georg and his team the same commitment to solving an unmet clinical need that had driven our success with CoreValve,” explains Antoine Papiernik, managing partner at Sofinnova. “Georg brought that same relentless approach to device design and regulatory expertise to HighLife.”
Antoine notes that the structural heart space rewards founders who aren't afraid to iterate and can navigate complexity with discipline.
That discipline translated into ten years of testing, gathering clinical evidence, navigating approvals and preparing for the market. In June 2024, HighLife received FDA approval to begin the study in the US. Ten months later, the FDA recognised it as a Breakthrough Device.
“For a structural heart company, this syndicate composition is a strong signal: the market is convinced the clinical and regulatory heavy lifting is complete,” Antoine adds. “The race for adoption has begun.”
