CVRx, Inc., has apparently invented something that’s the envy of local med-tech entrepreneurs: a money magnet.

On Wednesday, the Brooklyn Park-based company announced that it had closed on an additional $12 million in venture capital financing. That follows $29.6 million that the company obtained in July, which already ranked it as the top local med-tech recipient of venture capital investments in 2013.

CVRx has now raised nearly $42 million this year. Nadim Yared, the firm’s president and CEO, said that the company has raised $251 million in financing since its 2001 inception.

CVRx’s Barostim Neo is a medical device designed to treat hypertension and heart failure. The company began selling the product in Europe in 2012 and is starting a clinical trial in the U.S.

But despite CVRx’s success in raising money, Yared said the climate has become very challenging for med-tech companies looking to attract investors.

“It has been exponentially more difficult this time,” Yared told Twin Cities Business. “I think the world of the medical device space has changed substantially after September of 2008. . . . Before September 2008, I would receive calls on almost a monthly basis from investors wanting to invest in my company.”

The global financial crisis began in September 2008 amid the bankruptcy filing of storied Wall Street firm Lehman Brothers.

New investors in the latest CVRx financing round include Ysios Capital, a Spanish venture capital firm, and Denver, Colorado-based DaVita HealthCare Partners, Inc., a Fortune 500 company. In connection with the new round of financing, Josep Sanfeliu, a general partner with Ysios Capital, has joined the CVRx board of directors.

“This is the first time we have a European fund investing directly in our company,” Yared said. “It was a strategic move from our side. . . . It was important for us to start being more connected in Europe.”

CVRx has 70 employees. While the bulk of those employees are in Minnesota, Yared said that 16 of the company’s employees are in Europe.