Metactive announces nearly $3M combined in funding round, government grant
March 8, 2018 | Bobby Burch
Fairway-based Metactive has raised a $1.2 million round to accelerate the development of its products for the treatment of neurovascular, peripheral vascular and structural heart diseases.

Dr. Nick Franano
The round included Kansas City-based Mid-America Angels, as well as Serra Ventures. Founded by CEO Nick Franano, Metactive has raised more than $10 million to date.
In addition to the round, Metactive announced Thursday it was awarded a $1.5 million SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health to commercialize its embolic device for the occlusion of peripheral arteries and veins.
“This new investment capital and grant funding will be used to continue the development of our novel platform of embolic products,” Franano said in a release, “which we believe will provide physicians with devices that are exceptionally deliverable, can be placed with a high level of precision, are resistant to migration, and provide immediate, complete, and lasting occlusion.”
Embolization is a treatment that blocks the flow of blood in specific segments of arteries and veins, enabling doctors to divert blood away from cancerous tumors and other abnormal tissues. More than 150,000 peripheral vascular embolization procedures are performed each year around the world using coils and vascular plugs, which can be difficult to use and often result in incomplete treatment.
Franano also is the CEO of Flow Forward Medical.
Featured Business

2018 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
Neighborly nabs $5.5M from Formation 8, Ashton Kutcher
Neighborly, a San Francisco-based startup with an office in Kansas City, recently landed a multi-million dollar investment for its community investment marketplace. The company, which relocated its headquarters from Kansas City to San Francisco after struggling to raise local capital, raised $5.5 million from venture capital firms Formation 8 and Ashton Kutcher’s Sound Ventures, according…
Techweek Wednesday: Big Data Summit
Techweek Kansas City has arrived with dozens of events scheduled around the city each day. Wednesday’s scheduled events are included below. Don’t forget to check whether the event is RSVP-only. Big Data Summit Who: The Big Data Summit spans Wednesday and Thursday, with the bulk of the events on Wednesday. The summit events start with…
5 takeaways from most entrepreneurial city report
A report analyzing progress on Kansas City’s goal to become America’s most entrepreneurial city highlighted a trove of information on the area’s early-stage business community. KCSourceLink’s second-annual “We Create KC” report dissects the metro’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, including its headway toward realizing a challenge to become the nation’s most entrepreneurial city. Expounding on such metrics as…
KC lands federal ‘Smart Cities Initiative’ grant
The White House announced a new ‘Smart Cities Initiative’ this week that will bolster the Kansas City tech community. The $160 million grant has a slew of moving parts, but one portion includes a $6 million grant from the National Science Foundation that 15 communities, including Kansas City, will benefit from. The exact amount each…
