RedCrow Backed MindChild Successfully Receives FDA Approval

RedCrow, the innovative equity crowdfunding platform encouraging accredited and non-accredited investors initially helping health care and medtech startups grow, announced that MindChild Medical successfully received FDA approval for a non-invasive fetal heart monitor. The RedCrow-backed company submitted a 510(k) in 2012 for its MERIDIAN M110 monitor, a medical marvel measuring and displaying fetal heart rate (FHR), maternal heart rate (MHR), and uterine contractions (UA). The device, which has the potential to save thousands of lives, is one of projects RedCrow has helped support, and further, enabled others to help support.

MindChild, a privately funded medical device company launched in 2008, inspired the founding of RedCrow. CEO and founder of RedCrow, Brian Smith, became immersed with the development of MindChild following a personal tragedy that he and his wife experienced in 2003, when their first child was born prematurely and passed away shortly after birth. While working as a financial advisor at Morgan Stanley, Smith discovered that MindChild had the capabilities to save lives like his daughter’s with their breakthrough fetal monitor. It then became evident to Brian that there was a treasure chest of other startups that could do the same and he wanted to help generate awareness for these companies while simultaneously helping them raise funds. The idea blossomed into what is now RedCrow, and after a meeting of the minds with Chairman Jerry Harrison, they carefully vetted their first portfolio of companies, focused purely on improving lives, MiRTLE Medical, IXCELA and Stretch, officially launching RedCrow in November 2016.

“We are ecstatic MindChild’s fetal heart monitor received FDA approval. It was several years in the making but it’s a massive achievement for MindChild, and for RedCrow. We now have proven ability to facilitate significant governmental approval for groundbreaking products in the medtech and healthcare sectors, paving the way for other featured companies on our platform to reach their full potential,” said Brian Smith, CEO of RedCrow.

“Being involved with MindChild from infancy to present-day is extremely rewarding. I am grateful to have been a small part of their growth and I know that others who have experienced tragedies like my own are equally as proud,” Smith continued.

Bill Edelman, CEO of MindChild stated, “We are thrilled to have reached this milestone. The MERIDIAN M110 Fetal Monitoring System is the latest in a series of non-invasive fetal monitor technologies developed by MindChild that are intended to provide the healthcare community enhanced monitoring capabilities for both fetal heart rate, maternal heart rate and uterine contraction, with a single set of disposable abdominal surface electrodes. The MERIDIAN M110 has the potential to provide essential fetal monitoring, replacing four separate monitoring technologies now in use world-wide. We anticipate significant clinical interest for this innovative technology in the markets where MERIDIAN will be cleared for commercial distribution.”

“We have initially focused on the healthcare and medtech verticals for RedCrow because that’s what we truly care about, and there is so much innovation in this space that deserves attention, and subsequent funding. Our mission at RedCrow is to discover and help investors discover privately held, early stage startups that seek to make a positive social impact. At the end of the day, if we are vetting companies that have the potential to save many lives, like MindChild, we have done our job well,” Smith said.

The MERIDIAN M110 Fetal Monitoring System can be used on women who are either in labor or who are at the minimum of 37 completed weeks. The monitor is also indicated for use with singleton pregnancies using surface electrodes on the maternal abdomen. The MERIDIAN M110 Fetal Monitoring System is intended for use by health care professionals in a clinical setting.