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Kestra Medical Technologies device for detecting and responding to cardiac events. (Kestra Photo)
Kestra Medical Technologies, a Kirkland, Wash.-based company selling cardiac monitoring and therapeutic devices, filed for an initial public offering on Monday.
The company’s revenue more than tripled from $7.6 million in fiscal year 2023 to $27.8 million in the last fiscal year, which ended in April.
Net losses for the same periods were $84.2 million in 2023 and $94.1 million last year, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Monday’s filling marks the end of a long dry stretch with no traditional IPOs for Seattle-area tech companies since Sana Biotechnology went public in 2021. Companies have gone public since that time via a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), the most recent being Longevity Biomedical in 2023.
This follows a broader trend that saw a surge in U.S. IPOs in 2021, followed by years of lower activity. That began to change last year with an uptick in IPOs, particularly in life sciences and technology. Analysts are predicting a continued increase in the number of companies going public in 2025, citing stronger economic conditions.
Kestra launched in 2014 and makes wearable devices to detect and respond to sudden cardiac arrest, which is when the heart stops beating normal. The arrest is usually the result of ventricular arrhythmias caused by an electrical malfunction in the heart.
The cardiac event can be deadly if not responded to immediately and kills approximately 475,000 people each year in the U.S.
Kestra’s system, which won FDA approval in 2021, can send an alert to emergency medical service operators after a defibrillation shock. It also features a remote care patient data platform.
The company has raised $496 million from investors. Its most recent funding was a $196 million round in July.
Brian Webster is president and CEO of Kestra, which he has led for more than eight years. He was previously the chief executive of Physio-Control for 24 years, a company that sold external defibrillators and was acquired by Stryker for $1.28 billion in 2016.
Bank of America, Goldman Sachs Group and Piper Sandler are leading the IPO, according to the filing. Kestra is planning to trade on the Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol KMTS. The initial stock price is being negotiated.
