SI-Bone Raises $21 Million, Appoints CFO

San Jose, Calif.-based SI-Bone Inc. has named a new chief financial officer concurrently with wrapping up a successful $21 million financing round. Laura Francis joins the company with a wealth of experience in executive leadership positions.

Prior to joining SI-Bone, Francis was chief financial officer for Auxogyn Inc., a venture-backed life science start-up in the Silicon Valley. Prior to Auxogyn, she was vice president of finance, chief financial officer and treasurer for Promega Corporation, a privately held life sciences company. While at Promega, Francis led multiple acquisitions of businesses in Asia Pacific countries. Before joining Promega, she was the chief financial officer of Bruker BioSciences Corporation, a publicly traded life science company where she led their post IPO merger and secondary offering. Earlier in her career, Francis was an engagement manager with consulting firm McKinsey & Co., and an audit manager with accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers. Francis holds an MBA from Stanford University, a B.B.A. from the University of Wisconsin, and is a certified public accountant in the state of California.

“I could not be more excited to welcome Laura to the SI-Bone team. She has extensive corporate finance experience in both large and small, public and private, companies,” said CEO Jeffrey Dunn. “This, coupled with her experience with acquisition transactions in global markets and managing a successful public offering, will help us achieve our growth goals in the coming years.”

“This is a unique opportunity for me to join an innovative company with a dynamic team that is focused on improving patients’ lives everyday, but more importantly has multiple areas of opportunity for significant growth and expansion,” said Francis. “I am excited to work with Jeff and the team to continue to build the company’s business.”

New investor Redline Capital Management led the latest financing round that included participation from all existing major investors. Proceeds from the financing will be used primarily to fund further expansion in the United States and Europe in anticipation of increased demand in the growing minimally invasive surgical (MIS) SI (sacroiliac) joint fusion market in these regions. Procedure growth in the United States alone, as predicted by iData Research’s 2014 SI joint fusion market report, is expected to grow six-fold over the next three years from the more than 8,000 surgeries performed in 2014. Additional proceeds will be used to support entry into markets outside the United States and Europe, including countries in the Middle East, Asia and South America.

SI-Bone makes tools and products for patients with low back issues related to certain SI joint disorders.