COVENTRY – Concordia Fibers LLC has closed on a $1.5 million round of venture financing, including $250,000 from the Slater Technology Fund, to support the continuing expansion of the textile maker’s biomedical division.
The financing – jointly announced today by Concordia and the state-backed venture capital fund – is to be followed by a larger equity round later this year.
Slater’s share, the fund’s third and largest in the company, brings its total stake in Concordia to $500,000; it follows investments of $100,000 in mid-2003 and $150,000 in mid-2005. Each time, the fund has co-invested with existing shareholders – mostly, members of the Boghossian family, which founded the company in 1920 – Slater said.
“Slater’s continuing support has played a crucial role in the successful expansion of our business into biomedical manufacturing,” Randal W. Spencer, president and CEO of Concordia, said in a statement. “In addition to their financial support, we have benefited from the strategic and business guidance that Slater provides.”
Founded as a producer of synthetic yarns and threads, the company “undertook a concerted effort to reposition itself as a developer and supplier of engineered fibers for biomedical markets” in 2003, Slater noted in its news release.
Two years later, after acquiring the tissue-engineering assets of Albany International Research Co., Concordia developed the “Biofelt” brand, whose success spurred the company’s current expansion plans.
Biofelt is an implantable synthetic fabric that aids in tissue regeneration. Made of special polymers, the fabric encourages living cells to grow over its fibers, eventually absorbing and replacing the material. It is currently being used by biotechnology and medical-device companies and a number of biomedical research labs.
“Concordia’s transformation from a traditional textile manufacturer to a developer and supplier of novel biomedical products is an excellent example of the innovation and entrepreneurship we are witnessing in the life sciences sector here in Rhode Island,” said Slater Fund Managing Director Richard G. Horan. “Randy Spencer, Art Burghouwt and the team they have developed at Concordia deserve great praise for the progress being achieved.”
The Slater Technology Fund – established in 1997 by then-Gov. Lincoln Almond and the R.I. General Assembly, and based in Providence – provides seed capital to technology-based businesses in Rhode Island. Additional information is available at www.slaterfund.com.
Concordia Fibers LLC, founded in Coventry in 1920, is a producer of engineered yarns and fibers for scientific, automotive, biomedical and other uses. To learn more, visit www.concordiafibers.com. PBN subscribers can READ MORE about Biofelt and Concordia’s ongoing transformation from a traditional textile maker to a manufacturer of biomedical and other specialty products.
