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NovaVision CEO, Navroze Mehta, Can See Clearly Now--And Knows Exactly Where He's Taking His Company
Well-known for its retirement properties and plush country clubs, Boca Raton is not where you’d expect to find an entrepreneur polishing his company’s business plan to pitch to venture firms. But that’s exactly what
NovaVision CEO, Navroze Mehta did last fall, successfully securing $20 million in series C funding to expand the firm’s reached through its Vision Restoration Therapy (VRT) device.
Mehta’s path to being an entrepreneur started, ironically, at the $7 billion global electronics company, Thomson CSF. “I had been working on the early designs for HDTV,” Mehta said. “I went to Thomson with the idea to start a digital services company. I got an allocation of dollars and launched the company from the ground up.”
Comark Communications, a company within a company yet run like a start-up, designed and manufactured television transmission systems. Mehta was both successful--with the company profitable in the second year--and invigorated. “I loved it and that is what led me to the founding Dermdex,” he said.
On his own, without the corporate umbrella, Mehta cofounded Dermdex, a medical technology firm that specialized in solutions for dermatologists and plastic surgeons. Nothing in Mehta’s early career points to him running companies in the healthcare business. He received a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Sydenham College at the University of Bombay in India and a M.B.A. from Syracuse University. He is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and started his career at Carrier Corporation. But he has long been interested in the field. “I grew up in a medical environment,” he said. “My father was a surgeon. My brother was a surgeon. It was natural to gravitate back to medicine.”
The interest served him well. Dermdex was successfully sold to Salu Inc., a California-based, venture-backed company and Mehta had the choice to rest on his laurels or look for a new project.
While Mehta was building Dermdex, Bernhard Sabel, then Chair of the Psychology Department at University of Magdeburg, Germany, was developing the first generation Vision Restoration Therapy device. After a stroke or brain injury, patients are often left partially blind. But Sabel found that stimulation of the undamaged neurons in nearby areas where residual vision existed could increase vision. Essentially the neurons can “self-repair,” a concept known as “neuroplasticity,” compensating for injury by adjusting their activity in response to the stimulation. The VRT device, which patients use in the clinics and can take home, is the catalyst for the stimulation.
Sabel had started a company in Germany and was treating patients on a small scale.
Mehta was introduced to Sabel by one of his Dermdex investors who knew Sabel wanted to commercialize his technology in the U.S. and knew that Mehta was looking for a new challenge. Mehta met with Sabel in Germany. “I wasn’t familiar with the technology, but I was interested in both the clinical need and the science itself,” he said.
Back at home, Mehta started his own due diligence process making the rounds of the leading neurologists at stroke centers around the country--John Hopkins, Columbia, Emory to talk about the VRT technology. He wanted to be sure there was a clinical need for it. “I found out there was,” he said. “I was told that when it came to vision, victims of stroke and brain injury had to live with what they had.”
Mehta and Sabel founded NovaVision in 2002 (Sabel is no longer involved). Mehta fostered the technology through FDA clearance and, in 2003, raised a first round of funding of $6 million from Tullis-Dickerson & Co., Inc., Noro-Moseley Partners, and Crossbow Ventures. From there, the company acquired all the patents and took over operation of Sabel’s clinic in Germany.
Prior to the financing Mehta was bootstrapping the company. “For a while, I had to do everything,” he said. “It’s a relatively complex product, in terms of science. I had to make all the presentations and meet with the physicians. Now we have a field team which goes out to meet with centers interested in the product. I can focus more on strategy and research.”
Mehta clearly enjoys the opportunity of creating a staff from the ground-up. “I think of a CEO as being a conductor of an orchestra full of fantastically talented people,” he said. “It can be cacophony or beautiful music. It’s important to create the environment where people can be themselves and make a huge contribution as a member of the team.”
Currently NovaVision has about 50 employees with 35 in the U.S. and 15 in Germany. A number of the employees had worked with Mehta at his prior companies, gone on to work elsewhere, and now have joined him at NovaVision.
Mehta is supported by a powerhouse
Board of Directors and prestigious Scientific & Medical Board. “Managing the board is an important skill,” he said. “Ours is a very collaborative group. Each has his own skill set. I keep them informed and they help when they can. I probably talk to at least one board member every day.”
Last year Dr. Andrew Firlik replaced Mehta as Chairman of NovaVision. Firlik is in the unique position of being a practicing neurosurgeon, an entrepreneur and venture capitalist—although his fund, Foundation Medical Partners, is not an investor in NovaVision.
Mehta gives a good deal of credit for his management skills to Dallas-based Young President’s Organization (YPO) and served as President of the Miami chapter last year. “They have a great executive education program,” he said, adding the programs are held at universities like Wharton, Stanford and Cornell. “I go to one almost every year. I love immersing myself into the university environment, but the difference is you are with other CEOs, not just students.”
On the personal front, Mehta has a daughter and son, loves jazz, tennis and traveling, and--despite the fact he's surrounded by plush greens--prefers to ski.
Details, Details...
Investors in NovaVision’s January round of funding include, Chicago Growth Partners, Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation, Oakwood Medical Investors. Also participating in the financing were existing investors Tullis-Dickerson & Co., Inc., Noro-Moseley Partners, and Crossbow Ventures.
NovaVision VRT treatment is currently available in over 40 stroke centers in the U.S. and Germany. Funds from the recent investors will go to R&D and expansion to other centers.
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