In the News: The Ximedica Recipe for Success

Nov 11, 2014

PROVIDENCE – The morning after the election, on Nov. 5, SV Life Sciences, a Boston-based venture capital firm, announced that it had purchased the majority stake in Ximedica, one of Rhode Island’s most iconic knowledge economy firms. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Founded in 1985 [as the Item Group] by two RISD graduates, Aidan Petrie and Stephen Lane, Ximedica has often served as the poster child for Rhode Island’s emerging knowledge economy cluster, a company focused on the development and commercialization of medical devices.

The deal with SV Life Sciences marks the departure of co-founder Stephen Lane from the firm but keeps the current leadership team in place, with Randall S. Barko as president and CEO and Petrie as chief innovation officer. Paul LaViolette, managing partner and COO at SV Life Sciences, will now serve as chairman of Ximedica’s board.

What the deal means Petrie, the chief innovation officer, spoke with ConvergenceRI the morning that the deal with SV Life Sciences was announced, just before he left to speak at the inaugural Industrial Designers of America medical design conference, The Usability Ecosystem, held in Tampa, Florida, on Nov. 6-8.

As a result of the deal, Ximedica can achieve its vision of becoming “the top outsourced medical device developer in the country and the world,” Petrie told ConvergenceRI.

“Few companies,” he continued, “do what we do. We are FDA registered and fully focused on medical devices. With SV Life Sciences behind us, we can really fulfill that opportunity.”