€20 million capital funding for SuperSonic Imagine

€20 million capital funding for SuperSonic Imagine, new French player in the medical world- revolutionizing the ultrasound market and defying the world’s giants.

Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners, a new investor in SuperSonic Imagine and leader of its second fund-raising round, has invested €7 million alongside Auriga Partners, Crédit Agricole Private Equity, NBGI Ventures and BioAm, current investors in the Aix-en-Provence-based startup, who are renewing their financial backing with a further €13 million.

This second round follows a seed round of €500,000 financed by SuperSonic Imagine founder and CEO Jacques Souquet and Auriga Partners, and a first round of €10 million that was led in March 2006 by Crédit Agricole Private Equity alongside Auriga Partners, NBGI Ventures and BioAm.

The first round of fund-raising has allowed the young, innovative enterprise founded in 2005, by well-known industrialist Jacques Souquet and a group of respected ultrasound and medical imaging researchers, to develop Aixplorer™, a revolutionary ultrasound system for improved diagnosis of mammary pathologies, in the space of two and a half years.

This new round will finance the industrialization and marketing of Aixplorer™.Since April 2008, clinical trials have been testing this technology with prototypes situated in 18 sites around the world; 7 in the USA and 11 in Europe: Germany, Italy and France (at the Curie Institute in Paris, the Timone hospital in Marseille, Centre Antoine Lacassagne in Nice).

The result of major technological breakthroughs, SuperSonic Imagine’s new ultrasound system has revolutionized medical imaging by measuring tissue elasticity through the previously undetected visualization of shear waves, generated by Aixplorer™.

SuperSonic Imagine’s technology improves breast lesion diagnosis by identifying millimetric non-palpable lesions and anomalies which, because they are deep-set or located in dense breasts, were previously undetectable.

21 international patents have been submitted and filed for SuperSonic Imagine’s new generation ultrasound system, including Professor Mathias Fink’s patents at the Waves and Acoustics Laboratory (LOA/CNRS), Dr. Arman Sarvazyan’s original patents, and those directly registered by SuperSonic Imagine. This technology is solely owned and solely used by SuperSonic Imagine.

We are delighted to be joining this international team who is bringing an extremely innovative ultrasound system to the market, using break-through technology whose potential impact is similar to that of blood-flow imaging when «The Doppler» was launched several years ago,» said Olivier Litzka, Life Sciences Partner at Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners.

Between now and 2012, we will have adapted this technology to other clinical applications such as prostate, kidney, thyroid or liver, not to mention cardiovascular imaging,» stated Jacques Souquet, founder and CEO of SuperSonic Imagine.

In October 2008, Currently, SuperSonic Imagine employs 92 people, including American expatriates and French employees repatriated from the USA.

About SuperSonic Imagine

SuperSonic Imagine, based in Aix-en-Provence, France, is a young, innovative, multicultural company with a commitment to providing advanced technology to improve medical diagnosis. Founded in 2005 by world-renowned ultrasound and medical imaging research scientists, SuperSonic Imagine has developed Aixplorer™, an ultrasound system with a revolutionary imaging technology. With close to 100 employees in offices on 4 continents, the company holds twenty-one international patents and submissions that are solely owned and solely used by SuperSonic Imagine.

About AixplorerTM

Aixplorer™ is a next-generation ultrasound imaging system with unique technology that offers advantages in lesion detection and characterisation. Using a method of imaging called ShearWave™ Elastography, Aixplorer can measure true tissue elasticity,in real time providing quantifiable, user-skill independent and reproducible results. The Aixplorer™ ultrasound system also provides impeccable images and sophisticated features all packaged in an ergonomic design, to assist in the imaging diagnostic process. Aixplorer™ was named after its birthplace, Aix-en-Provence, in France.

Investors:

Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners: Olivier Litzka, Life Sciences Partner Crédit Agricole Private Equity: Alexia Perouse, Director of Investments Auriga Partners: Bernard Daugeras NBGI Ventures: Aris Constantinides BioAm: Philippe Boucheron

About Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners (EdRIP)

Paris-based Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners is dedicated to minority investments into privately-owned companies. It has currently EUR 650M under management which is being invested primarily as life sciences venture capital and growth capital. Its Life Science Team of six professionals brings together over 30 years of experience in the Life Science industry and more than 50 years of private equity and venture capital experience. The team has approximately EUR 300 M under management after having recently raised EUR 150 M through BioDiscovery III. Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners is an independently managed affiliate of La Compagnie Financière Edmond de Rothschild Banque. www.edrip.fr

About Crédit Agricole Private Equity

Crédit Agricole Private Equity, an AMF-authorized investment management company and whollyowned subsidiary of Crédit Agricole S.A., specializes in direct private equity investment in unlisted companies. A multi-specialist, Crédit Agricole Private Equity has 50 investment teams focusing on different segments of the private equity market (LBO & Expansion, Venture Capital, Mezzanine, Renewable Energy, PPP Infrastructure, Liquidity Solutions, Co-investment) and manages a total of €2.2 billion in various types of private equity vehicle (FCPR, SICAR, FCPI and SCR).

Press Contacts SuperSonic Imagine
H&B Communication

Catherine Toesca
c.toesca@hbcommunication.fr
Tel. +33 6 60 39 00 44

Anne Hardy
a.hardy@hbcommunication.fr
Tel. +33 1 58 18 32 51

Press Contacts Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners

Olivier Litzka, Partner Life Sciences
Olivier.litzka@lcfr.fr
Tel.+33 1 40 17 27 46

About Auriga Partners

Auriga Partners is an independent technological venture capital company, based in Paris. It invests shareholders’ funds in the fields of information technology and life sciences. The company invests in innovative projects marked by high potential, either in their creation or at an early development stage, in Europe, North America and Israel. Auriga Partners now manages three funds, a total of more than 330 million euros. Auriga Partners provides the companies in its portfolio with advice and know-how in structuring managerial teams, internal organization and the creation of strategic partnerships.
www.aurigapartners.com

About NBGI Ventures

SuperSonic Imagine announces a second fund-raising round of €20 million, led by Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners.

NBGI Ventures manages the EUR 60m NBG Technology LP, which invests in promising technologycentric companies in Europe, including Greece. The NBG Technology LP is an independent fund, based in the UK and backed by three prominent financial institutions, including the European Investment Fund (EIF). Operating from its offices in London and Athens, NBGI Ventures is managed by a dedicated team of professionals with substantial experience in both the technology and financial sectors. We strongly believe in the value of entrepreneurship and technology and the important role they each play, particularly in today’s competitive, dynamic and uncertain economic environment. We therefore seek exceptional investments that will bring change, innovation and value in their respective industries.
www.nbgiventures.com

About BioAm

Bioam is a €51 M investment venture capital fund managed by Biogestion SA, dedicated to the initial financing of biotech companies with strong growth potential, originating from French public or private research.
www.bioam.fr