# Karen Spilizewski

> Karen Spilizewski is a Series B investor at RiverVest (Cleveland) backing Medical and Health Care. See 2 investments, check sizes, portfolio. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: Angel Investor
- Fund: [RiverVest](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/rivervest)
- Location: Cleveland, United States
- Total investments: 2
- Last investment: Nov 2021
- Lead investor: 0%
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karen-spilizewski-9a1b734

Karen Spilizewski is a Series B investor at RiverVest in Cleveland focused on Medical and Health Care. Karen Spilizewski joined RiverVest® in January 2008 as a vice president. She is also a vice president of BioEnterprise Corporation in Cleveland, where she directs business development for medical device and equipment companies. Karen divides her time between BioEnterprise and RiverVest and is located in RiverVest’s Cleveland office. Karen serveson the board of Securus Medical Group, Inc. and is an observer at Neuros Medical, Inc.Since 2005, Karen has worked through BioEnterprise to identify, assess, and accelerate the growth of emerging medical device companies that originate from universities, clinical research, local entrepreneurs, or companies relocating to Ohio. Prior to joining BioEnterprise, Karen gained significant medical device industry experience at Avery Dennison Corporation, where she spent 19 years in research and business development.Karen brings a broad knowledge of the seed and early-stage life science opportunity landscape in Ohio and Western Pennsylvania and the ability to source and evaluate the most promising deals. Through her product and business development expertise, Karen is able to help entrepreneurs accelerate their companies toward next development milestones.Karen earned her M.B.A., M.S. in Macromolecular Science and B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University.

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Medical | 1 | 50% |
| Health Care | 1 | 50% |
| Biotechnology | 1 | 50% |
| Medical Device | 1 | 50% |

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Series B | 1 | 50% |
| Convertible Note | 1 | 50% |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Venture Med Group | VentureMed Group (VMG) designs, develops and markets innovative medical devices which enable interventionalists to cost effectively treat peripheral artery diseases and improve the lives of their patients.Founded by physicians who understand the clinical, medical and financial demands in today’s healthcare environment, VMG creates truly costeffective solutions. Their flagship product, the FLEX Scoring Catheter enables providers to reduce expensive inventory costs while offering the interventionalist more treatment options from a single device. |  | Convertible Note | Nov 23, 2021 |  |
| Venture Med Group | VentureMed Group (VMG) designs, develops and markets innovative medical devices which enable interventionalists to cost effectively treat peripheral artery diseases and improve the lives of their patients.Founded by physicians who understand the clinical, medical and financial demands in today’s healthcare environment, VMG creates truly costeffective solutions. Their flagship product, the FLEX Scoring Catheter enables providers to reduce expensive inventory costs while offering the interventionalist more treatment options from a single device. | $15M | Series B | Aug 15, 2017 |  |

2 of 2 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [Endeavour Vision](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/endeavour-vision) — VC Fund, 2 deals together

## About RiverVest

VC Fund · St Louis, United States

RiverVest is a venture capital firm that focuses on identifying and shaping early-stage life science companies that creates shareholder values. Their team’s domain experience allows them to identify, find, and actively incubate promising life science companies in the medical device and biopharmaceutical industries. It provides practical advice andstrategic leadership to help entrepreneurs drive early-stage companies forward. It also invests in selected later-stage life science companies to diversify risk and maximize portfolio returns.RiverVest is a U.S.-based company that was founded in 2000 by Jay W. Schmelter.

5 contacts available at RiverVest.

| Name | Title | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Karen Spilizewski | Vice President | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/karen-spilizewski |
| Andrew B. Craig III | Retired Special Limited Partner | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/andrew-b-craig-iii |
| Corrin J. Short | Executive Assistant | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/corrin-j-short |
| Derek K. Rapp | Managing Director | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/derek-rapp |
| Derek Rapp | Managing Director | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/derek-k-rapp |

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## FAQ

### What does Karen Spilizewski invest in?

Karen Spilizewski invests primarily in Medical, Health Care and Biotechnology startups, most often at Series B and Convertible Note stage. Most of the 2 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United States. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.

### When did Karen Spilizewski last invest?

The most recent investment recorded for Karen Spilizewski closed in Nov 2021. Shizune tracks 2 investments in total for this profile, including round sizes, stages and portfolio companies, all sourced from confirmed public funding rounds and refreshed monthly.

### Is Shizune's investor data accurate?

Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Aug 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.

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