Based in Or Yehuda, in central Israel, Valtech was founded in 2006 by Amir and Yossi Gross, and has 50 employees. The privately held company develops innovative surgical and trans-catheter valve repair and replacement devices, used primarily for the treatment of the most prevalent heart valve diseases, mitral valve regurgitation and tricuspid valve regurgitation, and has over 130 patents and patent applications to its name.

Mitral valve regurgitation, also known as mitral insufficiency, is a disorder in which the mitral valve on the left side of the heart does not close properly, allowing blood to flow back from the left ventricle into the left atrium. If untreated, the disease can lead to significant cardiac function deterioration and eventually death. Tricuspid regurgitation is a disorder in which this valve fails to close tightly, causing blood to leak into the right upper heart chamber when the lower chamber contracts.

The Peregrine venture capital fund was the initial Valtech investor, and was later joined by OXO Capital Valve Ventures and NGN Biomed Opportunity. Valtech has raised $70 million to date.

HeartWare, based in Framingham, Massachusetts, develops noninvasive, miniaturized circulatory support technologies used in the treatment of heart diseases.

“We have been actively monitoring the mitral space for several years, given the overlap of patient population and referral channel with our VAD business,” HeartWare CEO Doug Godshall said in a statement posted on the company’s website.

“We identified Valtech as having the broadest, most compelling portfolio several years ago, which led to an investment in 2013. This investment gave us a unique opportunity to observe Valtech’s significant progress across their portfolio of valve repair and replacement technologies. It is from this vantage point that we have concluded that Valtech’s platforms represent the most innovative and comprehensive portfolio of interventional and surgical products for mitral and tricuspid repair and replacement in development today.

“Valtech provides HeartWare with commercial-stage products for mitral repair, as well as a robust technology pipeline, an advanced R&D center and an impressive, experienced team with a proven track record. This combination represents an attractive opportunity for value creation for HeartWare shareholders, customers, employees and patients by expanding HeartWare’s footprint in the high-growth structural heart market.”