InnerOptic Lands CEO, Nears Close on New Financing

HILLSBOROUGH — InnerOptic has hired a chief executive officer, but he wasn’t in the office on Wednesday.

Instead, Brian Heaney was on the road, seeking venture funding for the medical-device startup. And as Heaney, a veteran with experience at Apple and General Electric, talks with potential investors, he knows that InnerOptic will announce next week that it is closing on $370,000 in new funding.

“Brian is hitting the ground running already,” Kurtis Keller, the founder and chief technology officer of InnerOptic, said. “We are looking in Silicon Valley and also in the Boston area.”

InnerOptic is developing 3D surgical-visualization technology, called InVision, designed to help doctors “see” better in performing minimally invasive surgery. The firm, which Keller launched in 2003 with technology licensed from UNC-Chapel Hill, has received a variety of federal grants and some angel funding.

Next week, InnerOptic is set to close on its first venture capital money as well as additional angel funding.

“We’re actually going to sign the papers next week,” Keller said. “We’ve got a small VC firm and some more angel money coming in to help us look for the larger amount we need.”

Knowing VC firms want senior and experienced management in place before investing, InnerOptic searched far and wide for a CEO before picking Heaney.

“Having an experienced CEO here makes a big difference,” Keller said. “I understand why. They are putting a lot of money in, and that experience makes a big difference.”

To fill the CEO role, Keller wanted someone with experience in both medical devices and in raising venture capital.

“There are not a whole lot of people who meet that criteria,” he said. “It’s hard to find a combination of both.”

Heaney brings to InnerOptic extensive experience in working with medical visualization technology at General Electric. He also worked five years at Apple as director of software for the Power Mac products.

As an entrepreneur, Heaney helped Liberate, a technology firm, go public in 2000. His most recent position was vice president of engineering at Bytemobile, a provider of mobile Internet solutions.

InnerOptic wants to raise $4.3 million by March of next year in order to further refine its products and to add staff.

InVision is designed to help surgeons use ultrasound more easily during minimally invasive procedures. InnerOptic hopes to win final Food and Drug Administration approval for InVision next year.

The second device, called the Laparoscope, provides real-time imagery of the area where minimally invasive surgery of the abdomen, or laparoscopic surgery, is being performed. InnerOptic is developing patented technology that will enable surgeons to “see” the procedure they are performing through a head-mounted display rather than having to watch a TV monitor.

The company is also developing cancer-detection capability.