Rebalancing heart failure at its source - one nerve, one catheter, no implant.
Nearly half of all heart failure patients live with a version of the disease - heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, or HFpEF - that has almost no proven, durable treatments. For decades the standard playbook has been to manage the symptoms: drain excess fluid, ease the breathlessness, repeat. Axon Therapies, a clinical-stage medical device company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, is built around a different premise. What if you could reach past the symptoms and calm the overactive nervous system that keeps making the disease worse?
Its answer is a procedure the company calls SAVM - Splanchnic Ablation for Volume Management. Using a catheter threaded through the femoral vein in the groin, physicians navigate to a vessel near the right greater splanchnic nerve and deliver targeted radiofrequency energy to quiet it. There is no implant left behind. The outpatient procedure typically takes under an hour. The bet is that by dialing down a single, well-chosen nerve, the body can be nudged back toward a healthier balance of blood volume - and a failing heart can be given room to work.
A catheter is inserted through the femoral vein in the groin - no surgery, no implant.
The Axon Ablation Catheter is guided to a target vessel near the right greater splanchnic nerve.
Targeted radiofrequency energy calms the nerve, blocking overactive sympathetic signals.
Blood volume redistributes more naturally, easing pressure on the heart - the patient goes home the same day.
Bar lengths are illustrative of reported directional improvement, not to a common scale. Figures reflect 12-month feasibility data reported by the company; the Satera Ablation System remains investigational and is not approved for commercial use.
Heart failure is one of the leading causes of hospitalization and death worldwide, yet patients still face a lack of effective treatment options. Our implant-free, minimally invasive therapy is designed to address a core physiological driver of the disease.
An investigational, implant-free catheter system delivered through the femoral vein to perform targeted ablation of the greater splanchnic nerve in a sub-one-hour outpatient procedure.
Splanchnic Ablation for Volume Management - the proprietary therapy that calms the overactive sympathetic nervous system to normalize blood volume distribution in heart failure.
The catheter navigated to a vessel near the right greater splanchnic nerve to deliver radiofrequency energy and block sympathetic signals.
Axon Therapies is a pre-commercial, clinical-stage business. It develops proprietary, patent-protected ablation hardware and a novel interventional procedure, financed by venture and strategic healthcare investors while it runs randomized feasibility and pivotal trials toward FDA IDE approval and European CE Mark. The eventual model: selling the device and procedure to hospitals, cath labs and interventional cardiologists.
Its likely customers are the heart failure specialists, electrophysiologists and interventional cardiologists who would perform SAVM - on behalf of the tens of millions of patients living with HFpEF.
Axon sits in the emerging category of device-based neuromodulation for heart failure. Alternatives include baroreflex activation therapy (CVRx's Barostim, and the legacy Rheos system), interatrial shunt devices such as Corvia Medical's, and broader sympathetic-modulation approaches like renal denervation. The default competitor, though, is standard drug therapy - diuretics and SGLT2 inhibitors.
What distinguishes Axon is its specific target: the right greater splanchnic nerve and the enormous blood-volume reservoir it governs.
| Round | Amount | Date | Lead / Notable Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Series A | $32M | Sep 2025 | Earlybird VC & Santé Ventures (co-leads), Deerfield, CD Capital, KOFA Healthcare |
| Earlier financing | ~$3.3M (implied) | Prior | Deerfield Management, Action Potential Venture Capital |
Total funding figure and earlier-round amount are approximate, derived from reported totals. Axon was incubated by the New York medtech studio Coridea.
Axon advances its splanchnic ablation concept and early feasibility work out of the Coridea-incubated program.
Roll-in cohort data on endovascular ablation of the right greater splanchnic nerve in HFpEF is reported in the peer-reviewed literature.
Axon presents data confirming procedure safety and identifying which patients are most likely to benefit from SAVM.
An oversubscribed Series A closes, co-founder Zoar Engelman is appointed CEO, and a UK subsidiary - Axon Vascular Europe Ltd - is established.
It is a clinical-stage medical device company developing SAVM, a minimally invasive, implant-free catheter procedure that ablates the greater splanchnic nerve to rebalance blood volume and treat heart failure, especially HFpEF.
It is Axon's investigational catheter-based device, delivered through the femoral vein, that performs targeted radiofrequency ablation of the right greater splanchnic nerve in an outpatient procedure typically under an hour.
Axon raised a $32M oversubscribed Series A in September 2025, co-led by Earlybird Venture Capital and Santé Ventures, bringing reported total funding to roughly $35.3M.
Co-founder Zoar Engelman, PhD - formerly Chief Scientific Officer - is President & CEO, with co-founder Howard Levin, MD serving as Chief Medical Officer.
No. As of 2026 the Satera Ablation System and SAVM procedure remain investigational, studied in randomized feasibility trials such as REBALANCE-HF, and not yet cleared for commercial use.
This profile is compiled from public sources including Axon Therapies' website and press releases. Axon's Satera Ablation System and the SAVM procedure are investigational and not approved for commercial use. Clinical figures are as reported by the company and should be treated as approximate. Some video links point to search results rather than a single verified official channel.