Acquisition primes medical device co. for growth
A Portland-based medical device firm has plans to grow, now that it has a new CEO and has been acquired by a Maine-based investment fund.
ANANIA & Associates Investment Co. LLC earlier this month bought a controlling interest in Lighthouse Imaging Corp., which develops medical optical devices like endoscopes, for an undisclosed price. Following that investment, ANANIA tapped Mark Waite, an electrical engineer with experience in growing tech startups, to be the new chief executive.
Waite takes over from Lighthouse Imaging founder Dennis Leiner, who invented the company's devices and had a major role in developing the endoscopy and laparoscopy industries, Waite says. Leiner, who established Lighthouse Imaging in 1986, will now serve as the company's chief technology officer. "Dr. Leiner's inventions and product development had likely come to a point where you have to grow the market opportunities and the need to really be commercialized, and it takes new resources to bring it about -- new people and new investment money," Waite says.
Waite says he and ANANIA plan to grow the company by bringing the company's medical devices to full production and selling them to a targeted audience, including hospitals' biomedical and clinical engineering departments and major medical device manufacturers like Stryker, Smith & Nephew and Richard Wolf Medical Instruments Corp. Marketing these new products, in development since last year, requires building a distribution network worldwide, Waite says.
Established in 1987 as a merchant banking firm and in 2008 as an investment fund, AAI invests in small companies primarily in the manufacturing sector and provides financial, management and marketing oversight. So far this year, AAI has raised more than $2.5 million in new equity capital that it invested in four Maine companies.
With the acquisition only finalized earlier this month, the company is still in the process of solidifying its plans, including revenue projections for the upcoming year. Last year, Lighthouse Imaging's annual revenue was under $5 million, Waite says. And while employment numbers are still being worked out as well, the company will likely double its staff of six within the next year, Waite estimates.
Waite and others at Lighthouse Imaging are also gearing up for Medica, the world's largest medical device trade show happening in mid-November in Dusseldorf, Germany. Lighthouse Imaging has only appeared at the show once or twice in the past couple of years and is hoping to ramp up its presence, Waite says.
Earlier this year, Lighthouse Imaging bought Pennsylvania-based Vipera Systems, which held patents for infrared endoscope technology. In June, Leiner told Mainebiz the acquisition would allow the company to bring the endoscope technology to full development and create a new product line. The company was named 2010 Maine Innovator of the Year by the Maine International Trade Center.
Waite has worked to build a number of technology companies, and has experience in the semiconductor and health care fields. He also founded Launch Momentum, a Maine-based company that helped early-stage companies commercialize their technology through new management and financing.
"The challenge is to grow [Lighthouse Imaging] and sell more product and bring in more people, and do it all here in Maine," he says. "The bottom line is, we're all working to do that."
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