A Korean private equity group has invested $30 million in Cleveland Heart—a Cleveland Clinic spin-off formed in 2008—to further the development of the local company's artificial heart.

The investment from Power Heart Consortium is the largest a Cleveland Clinic spin-off has ever received from a lone investor. The investment is expected to allow Cleveland Heart to continue its international clinical trials, expand its laboratory research and tweak the design of the artificial heart.

Cleveland Clinic Innovations, the health system's business development arm, is responsible for the creation of the company, which is a joint venture with Charlotte-based TransWorld Medical Devices.

“These resources will enable Cleveland Heart to significantly advance the development of its total artificial heart system that has the potential to dramatically improve the lives of thousands of heart failure patients,” said Chris Coburn, executive director of Cleveland Clinic Innovations, in a news release. “It is wonderful to see how this investment will advance this breakthrough technology developed with great effort by Cleveland Clinic cardiac surgeons, engineers and cardiologists.”

Cleveland Heart's product has been coined the SmartHeart, which has been designed for long-term use in patients suffering from biventricular heart failure.