Wearable cardiac devices developer Kestra Medical Technologies has revealed plans to raise around $154m in an initial public offering (IPO).
The US-based company is selling ten million common shares priced between $14 and $16 each, with the listing to occur on the NASDAQ. Kestra will trade under the ticker KMTS and offer a further 1.5 million shares to underwriters.
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Bain Capital’s investment fund Bain Charger Holdings will own around 52.8% of Kestra, meaning it will be a “controlled company”, as per a SEC filing.
Kestra, already a Bain Capital portfolio company, raised $196m in a previous financing round in July 2024. If Kestra goes on to raise $154.2 in its IPO, it would likely place the company at the sharp end of medtech listings in 2025. The highest IPO in 2024 from a pure-play medtech company came via EEG-developer CeriBell’s $180.3m offering. Kestra’s value would still be down, however, on the $204m raised by diabetes device developer Beta Bionics in a January IPO last month.
Kestra’s flagship product is Assure, a wearable cardioverter defibrillator worn under regular clothing for patients at an elevated risk of sudden cardiac arrest. The system automatically monitors a patient’s heart rhythm and delivers a shock to return the heart to normal beating. The device was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in July 2021.
According to the filing, Assure has been prescribed by more than 550 hospitals in the US and worn by over 17,000 patients.
If the IPO was not testament to investor belief in the sector’s financial opportunity, Kestra has highlighted the market size of wearable cardioverter defibrillators. Global revenues for the devices reached $1.3bn in 2023, with 85% of sales occurring in the US, according to the company. The company believes the total addressable market in the US for Assure is around $10bn.
“The volume of patients prescribed a wearable cardioverter defibrillator in the US grew at roughly 6% annually between 2021 and 2023, and we expect [device] revenues to continue growing,” Kestra stated in the filing.
Kestra said it would use the IPO’s proceeds to scale up its commercial organisation. Bulking out its sales teams, supply chain outlay, and direct investment into the devices through R&D funding are activities the company plans to execute with the potential $154.2m.
The IPO comes at a time of changes at the helm of the company, with new execs having experience of high-value selloffs. This month, Kestra appointed Al Ford as the company’s new chief commercial officer. Ford was previously chief operating officer at Axonics, a neuromodulation company acquired by Boston Scientific for $3.7bn. Neil Bhalodkar also joined as vice president of investor relations – he was in similar roles at Axonics and Inari Medical, the latter recently being bought by Stryker for $4.9bn.
