Sientra funding rises to $151M
Sientra, the Santa Barbara breast implant company that recently received the first FDA approval in several decades for new implants for the U.S. market, has closed a $65 million funding round, bringing its total capital raised to $151 million.
The lead investor on the private equity deal was London-based life sciences fund Abingworth. Sientra’s existing investors – OrbiMed and Clarus Ventures – also participated in the funding round.
Sientra received approval for its silicone implants earlier this month. Before that, only two companies – Allergan and Johnson & Johnson’s Mentor Corp. – were approved for use in the United States. The implant businesses at both companies have roots in Santa Barbara and generated billions of dollars in sales and merger activity.
Sientra was founded in 2007 by Hani Zeini, a veteran of Inamed, the breast implant company in Santa Barbara that sold to Allergan for $3.2 billion in 2005. Zeini assembled a team that bought the North American subsidiary of a Brazilian implant firm called SiliMed and shepherded the products through the U.S. approval process.
“America is the only market left for breast implants where it’s a duopoly,” Zeini said in a recent interview with the Business Times. “I felt strongly that Sientra could be in a position to break through and provide a choice for patients.”
[Correction: This story originally stated that Sientra purchased SiliMed, a Brazilian firm. Sientra purchased SiliMed’s North American subsidiary. The Brazilian parent company continues to operate independently.]
