Mauna Kea Technologies, a Paris and Boston-based medical device company and inventor of the Cellvizio confocal laser endomicroscopy platform, has established a shareholder loan agreement with long-standing investor Vester Finance for up to €4 million in optional financing over 24 months. As of the announcement date, no funds have been drawn. The company retains sole discretion over whether and when to access the facility, with no contractual obligation to draw, and may suspend or terminate the agreement at any time at no cost.
The structure allows Mauna Kea to request advances of up to €0.5 million at a time. Advances are repayable either in cash, in which case they carry a 7.0% annual interest rate and mature on January 15, 2029, or in newly issued shares based on the volume-weighted average stock price preceding each issuance with a maximum 5% discount. The share issuance is capped at 24 million new shares, representing approximately 12.3% of current share capital — implying maximum dilution of approximately 11% in the event of full repayment in shares. Vester Finance currently holds 11.9% of Mauna Kea’s capital and would hold approximately 21.6% on a non-diluted basis if all shares under the maximum facility were issued.
Mauna Kea noted that its existing cash position already provides a runway into the second quarter of 2027 without drawing on this facility or exercising previously issued warrants. The arrangement is therefore positioned as financial flexibility rather than a liquidity necessity — intended to allow the company to act on commercial opportunities as they arise rather than constrain spending to preserve cash.
The intended use of any drawn funds centers on two priorities: accelerating U.S. commercial adoption of Cellvizio in the pancreatic-cyst indication and expanding deployment of CellTolerance, its tolerance monitoring technology; and continuing geographic expansion internationally, following the company’s entry into Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, and Turkey in the first half of 2026. Cellvizio is a real-time in vivo cellular imaging platform used across multiple medical specialties to visualize tissue at the cellular level during procedures, enabling physicians to classify lesions, monitor disease progression, and guide surgical interventions in real time.
KEY QUOTE:
“Concluded with our long-standing shareholder and partner Vester Finance, this optional arrangement, which we can mobilize at our sole initiative, provides valuable financial flexibility. As we have been experiencing favorable commercial momentum for several quarters now, it gives us the ideal room to maneuver to accelerate the commercial adoption of Cellvizio, at the very moment when we plan to selectively strengthen our U.S. commercial force and expand the international presence of CellTolerance.”
Sacha Loiseau, Ph.D., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Mauna Kea Technologies
