The medical technology firm behind the world’s first artificial titanium heart is raising $100 million, which it will use to fund trials that could ultimately see its device implanted into tens of thousands of people.

BiVACOR’s artificial heart was implanted into the first Australian patient at St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney late last year. The patient survived without a human heart for three months and was discharged from hospital in February, a world-first. He had a human heart transplant this month.