Midwest health care start-ups attracted $780 million in investments in 2009, according to the BioEnterprise Midwest Health Care Venture Investment Report. While the number of companies winning investments last year — 156 — was about the same as in 2008, the dollar volume of the investments dropped 26 percent.

CoAxia thinks its NeuroFlo technology could be part of basic care for 500,000 ischemic stroke patients, breaking into a market worth more than $1 billion. Instead of attacking the brain clot, its catheter diverts blood flow from the lower parts of the body and pushes it into the brain to increase blood flow.