Another Minnesota med-tech firm goes public, trading on Nasdaq

Minnesota's newest public company is Envoy Medical Corp., a medical technology firm in White Bear Lake that is now on the Nasdaq exchange after a deal with a special purpose acquisition company.

Tampa-based Anzu Special Acquisition Corp. completed a merger on Friday, and Envoy started trading under the "COCH" ticker symbol on Monday.

Special acquisition corporations, or SPACs, are blank check companies that go public to raise money to then acquire or merge with an operating business. Through the business combination, the second company becomes publicly traded.

Envoy is developing a cochlear implant,

Envoy is a development stage company and will need to secure approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration before it can commercialize its Acclaim cochlear implant.

Brent Lucas, CEO of Envoy Medical, said that he hopes the listing will help the company raise additional capital.

He said that Envoy began talking to Anzu about a possible deal last November.

Last year Envoy started an early feasibility study with Mayo Clinic for the implant.

"In the coming quarters, we anticipate being able to report key milestones in our ongoing clinical trial at the Mayo Clinic and our planned pivotal trial at several of the premier cochlear implant centers in the United States," Lucas said in a statement.

Cochlear implants are used by patients who have severe hearing loss and cannot get relief from hearing aids. The standard cochlear implant calls for the user to wear an external sound processor behind the ear.

Envoy Medical envisions Acclaim as the first-ever device that could be fully implanted in the ear.

A prospectus filed in September with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission outlined the risks for potential investors: "Envoy has generated limited revenue from product sales and may never be profitable."

The company expects to incur "significant expenses" for its clinical trials.

And Envoy had a net loss of $15.9 million in 2022.

Envoy's stock was down 31.6% on Monday from Friday's closing price. On Tuesday, the stock declined 10.6% to close at $4.29 per share. Star Tribune owner Glen Taylor is an investor in Envoy Medical.

On Thursday, the stock closed at $4.30, down 2.4%.

There are currently no Minnesota companies planning initial public offerings.

But Eden Prairie-based Sanuwave Health Inc. is hoping to go public by the end of the year through its own SPAC deal.

Minneapolis-based Sezzle Inc., which was already traded on the Australian stock exchange, started trading on Nasdaq in August.