Israeli venture capital fund Peregrine Ventures, which specializes in seed and early-stage ventures, has sold around 30% of its holdings in medical devices company Neovasc Inc. to the investment firm Fidelity Select Portfolios: Medical Equipment & Systems Portfolio for US$12 million.

Peregrine sold two million of the 6.7 million Neovasc shares it held at US$6 per share. About 4.7 million Neovasc shares, which comprise around 70% of Peregrine's original stake in the company, are still held by the venture capital firm. These holdings are currently worth around US$27.5 million. The medical devices company's current market cap is around US$315 million.

Neovasc is traded on Nasdaq under the ticker NVCN and on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) under the NVC. The specialty medical device company develops, manufactures and markets products for the rapidly growing cardiovascular marketplace. Headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, it was created through a merger led by Peregrine Ventures in July 2008. Two of Peregrine's Israeli portfolio companies, Neovasc Medical and B-Balloon merged with Medical Ventures Corporation, a publicly-traded Canadian company which specializes in medical devices for the vascular and surgical market.

"The fact that, following this transaction we continue to hold around 70% of our original holdings in Neovasc demonstrates our deep trust in the future of this promising company," said Eyal Lifschitz, founding general partner of Peregrine Ventures. He added, "Israel is a world leader in the development of medical devices especially in the cardiovascular field. Numerous groundbreaking technologies in those fields were developed in Israel by Israeli companies. These companies yield high value to both entrepreneurs and investors and generate extraordinary returns for investors all over the world."