Anzu Special Acquisition Corp. and Envoy Medical announced last week that they completed a previously announced business combination.
The combination with Anzu, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) results in Envoy becoming a publicly listed company. It continues to operate under the name Envoy Medical. The company’s common stock commenced trading on the Nasdaq market on Oct. 2 under the COCH ticker.
White Bear Lake, Minnesota-based Envoy develops hearing health technologies across the hearing loss spectrum.
Last year, Envoy received FDA investigational device exemption (IDE) for its Acclaim cochlear implant. Acclaim is a first-of-its-kind cochlear implant designed to be fully implanted using the ear, rather than a microphone, to pick up sound. The design leverages the natural anatomy of the ear to capture sound. It aims to address the limitations of current microphone-based hearing devices.
Anzu CEO Whitney Haring-Smith in a news release called Envoy “a leading innovator in an attractive industry with strong growth prospects.” The SPAC considers the potential untapped market opportunity to come in over $80 billion in the U.S. Haring-Smith said Acclaim could become the first fully implanted cochlear implant commercialized in the U.S., too.
Envoy CEO Brent Lucas says the company expects to report key milestones “in the coming quarters.” The company has an ongoing clinical trial at Mayo Clinic, plus a planned pivotal trial.
“We believe that achieving a fully implanted cochlear implant – enabling people to not recharge or change their battery daily or have to worry about external components on their head, among many other potential benefits – will encourage more people with clinically indicated hearing loss to get a cochlear implant and improve their quality of life,” Lucas said.