Bridge to Life Raises $110M Series C for VitaSmart Expansion

Bridge to Life has completed a $110M Series C and debt financing to accelerate the U.S. rollout of its VitaSmart hypothermic oxygenated perfusion system and advance a broader organ-preservation pipeline. Soleus Capital led the equity financing, Lauxera Capital Partners participated, and Soleus Capital Credit Opportunities Fund provided the debt.

The deal arrives seven months after the FDA granted De Novo classification to VitaSmart for specified liver-transplant use. That timing matters because Bridge to Life is no longer financing a regulatory hypothesis. It is financing the field teams, working capital, product development, and operating infrastructure required to turn an authorized medical device into routine clinical practice.

The company also used part of the proceeds to refinance its credit facility with Perceptive Credit Funds. That makes the financing a two-part move: fund commercial expansion while reducing leverage and lowering interest expense. The company did not disclose the equity-debt split, valuation, or ownership terms.

What Happened

Bridge to Life completed the transaction on August 12, 2026. The Series C equity was led by Soleus Capital, with participation from Lauxera Capital Partners and Bridge to Life directors, officers, and employees. The debt came from Soleus Capital Credit Opportunities Fund. UBS Investment Bank acted as exclusive financial adviser and placement agent, while Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP served as legal counsel.

The $110M will support the VitaSmart commercial rollout, expansion of Bridge to Life's clinical and commercial field organizations, working capital for U.S. transplant-center deployment, development of an investigational organ-viability assessment tool, additional organ applications, and global operations. The company says VitaSmart has already generated master service agreements, repeat orders, and a pipeline of transplant centers, though those commercial metrics remain preliminary.

Bridge to Life previously completed a $56M growth financing in 2021. That transaction combined a secured credit facility with Series A preferred equity and was led by Perceptive Advisors. A separate 2024 SEC Form D records a $1M equity offering. Those transactions have different structures, making a simple cumulative funding figure potentially misleading.

Why VitaSmart Matters

VitaSmart is designed for hypothermic oxygenated perfusion, or HOPE, of donor livers. The FDA's January 15, 2026 De Novo decision classified the device as Class II for oxygenated perfusion of specified donor livers after static cold storage and before transplantation. The authorization does not cover use while an organ is in transport, nor does it extend to Bridge to Life's investigational viability-assessment technology.

The distinction is important. Organ-preservation technology sits inside a workflow where time, temperature, oxygenation, clinical judgment, and logistics all matter. A device can clear the regulatory gate and still face the harder operational test: whether transplant centers can integrate it reliably, train teams, justify the economics, and use it often enough to change outcomes.

Bridge to Life brings an established preservation franchise to that test. Its portfolio includes Belzer UW cold-storage and machine-perfusion solutions, EasiSlush, cannulas, and VitaSmart. The company was founded in 2005 and expanded its perfusion capabilities through a 2020 merger with Tevosol. Founder Steve Schweighardt now serves as chairman, Don Webber is CEO and president, and Brian Lenz is CFO.

What the Financing Changes

The round gives Bridge to Life resources for commercial execution rather than product development alone. Expanding field teams and working capital sounds less glamorous than a new device announcement, but medtech adoption lives in those details. Transplant centers need clinical support, service coverage, training, inventory, and a vendor able to stay responsive when the product enters a high-stakes procedure.

The balance-sheet work matters too. Refinancing the Perceptive facility reduces the financial drag around the rollout and gives management more room to invest in commercialization. Growth capital can disappear quickly when debt is expensive, inventory must be financed, and customers adopt on different timelines. Bridge to Life is using the round to address those constraints together.

The investor mix also fits the assignment. Soleus Capital focuses on life sciences across equity and credit, while Lauxera is dedicated to health technology and has prior experience in organ-transplantation devices. This is patient capital in the literal and financial senses, where clinical evidence, regulatory controls, commercial discipline, and long adoption cycles have to coexist.

Market Context

The need for better organ utilization remains severe. UNOS reported more than 100,000 people waiting for an organ transplant in the United States in 2026, even as the country completed a record 49,064 transplants in 2025. Preservation and perfusion technologies cannot create donors, but they can influence whether recovered organs remain viable and whether clinicians have enough information and confidence to use them.

Bridge to Life is developing a viability-assessment tool intended to supplement visual assessment, donor characteristics, clinical judgment, and surrogate measures. The company says the goal is more objective decision support for marginal and extended-criteria organs. That tool is still under development and is not cleared for sale, so its eventual evidence, indication, and regulatory pathway remain open questions.

What This Signals

The $110M financing marks Bridge to Life's transition from regulatory achievement to commercial accountability. FDA classification established a path to market for VitaSmart's specified use. The next proof points will be adoption across transplant centers, repeat utilization, service performance, clinical evidence, and disciplined expansion beyond liver transplantation.

That is the larger market signal. Medtech companies are not rewarded simply for producing a clever machine or surviving a review process. The durable businesses build the infrastructure that makes sophisticated technology feel dependable inside ordinary clinical work. Bridge to Life now has the capital to attempt that conversion at scale, and the transplant community will provide the scoreboard.