Lumius is a Durham, North Carolina medical device company building a fast, affordable, real-time 3D ultrasound system - a '3D camera for the body.' Founded by three Duke PhDs, it replaces the flat 2D slices clinicians must mentally stitch into anatomy with a live volumetric view and AI that flags vessels, nerves, and muscle. The company starts with vascular access and central line placement, where roughly half of first attempts by newer clinicians fail, and plans to expand into clot detection, nerve blocks, tumor diagnosis, and biopsy guidance.
Velcro Companies is the maker of the original VELCRO Brand hook-and-loop fastener, invented by Swiss engineer George de Mestral after studying burrs under a microscope in the 1940s. From its U.S. base in Manchester, New Hampshire, the privately held firm designs and manufactures thousands of fastening variants - from basic fabric closures to injection-molded plastics, high-temperature retention systems and medical-grade straps - serving customers across medical, aerospace, automotive, military, industrial, footwear, packaging and consumer markets in roughly seven countries.
Omniscient Neurotechnology (o8t) is a Sydney-based brain-mapping company that uses AI and machine learning to turn ordinary MRI scans into detailed maps of the brain's electrical networks, or connectomes. Its flagship FDA-cleared platform, Quicktome, gives neurosurgeons a patient-specific view of the pathways responsible for speech, movement and cognition before they operate, while its research platform, Infinitome, helps scientists study how diseases like Alzheimer's, epilepsy and schizophrenia disrupt brain connectivity. Founded in 2019 and led by CEO Stephen Scheeler, the company has raised roughly US$124 million to date and is expanding connectomics into stroke, movement disorders and brain-computer interfaces.
AiM Medical Robotics is a Worcester, Massachusetts medical device company building a portable, MRI-compatible surgical robot that lets neurosurgeons operate under continuous, real-time MRI guidance. Spun out of Gregory Fischer's Automation and Interventional Medicine (AIM) lab at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, the platform aims to make procedures such as deep brain stimulation lead placement, biopsy, tumor ablation and targeted drug delivery faster, more precise and less variable - reducing procedure time by up to 50% and expanding access to advanced neurosurgical care.
Pearl Diagnostics is a Baltimore-based in vitro diagnostics company spun out of Johns Hopkins University that develops non-invasive urine tests to detect life-threatening lung infections. Its proprietary Smart Antibody technology identifies circulating microbial extracellular vesicles, and its lead product, the MycoMEIA Aspergillus Assay, became the first urine-based test to win FDA 510(k) clearance for aiding diagnosis of invasive aspergillosis. The company raised an $11.2M Series A in March 2026 to commercialize in the US and expand across Europe.
Chipiron is a Paris-based medical-imaging startup building a compact, low-cost MRI scanner that runs at an ultra-low magnetic field (below ~30 millitesla, roughly 1,000x weaker than a hospital MRI). Its patented low-Tc SQUID quantum detection system plus AI noise cancellation and reconstruction are designed to recover clinical-grade image quality without a shielded room, without helium, and at a fraction of the cost, size, and infrastructure of conventional machines. The company's stated aim is to make MRI accessible everywhere, starting with breast imaging, and eventually reach patients, clinics, and remote settings that today's scanners can't serve.
HueDx is a Philadelphia diagnostics company - formerly Group K Diagnostics - that turns any smartphone camera into a reader for lab-grade, quantitative color-based tests. Its patented HueCard color-correction hardware and AI-powered HueTools/HueCloud software let researchers develop, validate, and deploy paper-based colorimetric assays without proprietary readers or lab infrastructure, aiming to make quantitative results available at the point of care and at home.
NeuroBionics is a Boston-area neurotechnology company spun out of more than a decade of MIT research. It builds hair-thin, flexible bioelectronic fibers that reach neural targets through the body's blood vessels instead of open surgery. Its lead device, evStim, aims to deliver deep brain and peripheral nerve stimulation endovascularly, potentially widening access to neuromodulation therapy for conditions like Parkinson's disease, epilepsy, chronic pain, and depression.
Adona Medical is a clinical-stage medical device company in Los Gatos, California developing the Delphi System, a chronically adjustable interatrial shunt with integrated bi-atrial pressure monitoring designed to personalize heart failure therapy over time. A Shifamed portfolio company founded in 2019 by Brian Fahey, Amr Salahieh, and Lewis Schwartz, Adona uses shape memory nitinol and an external induction catheter to resize the shunt after implantation without further invasive procedures.
Aurie is a Syracuse-based medical device company that built the first FDA-authorized reusable no-touch intermittent catheter system. Founded by industrial designer Souvik Paul after his sister-in-law's catheter-related infections, Aurie reuses a single catheter up to 100 times via a portable Personal Disinfector that cleans, disinfects, and lubricates the device in 36 minutes - cutting waste and recurring costs for people living with neurogenic bladder.
identifeye HEALTH (formerly Tesseract Health) builds an AI-powered retinal imaging platform that turns a quick eye scan in a primary-care clinic into a window onto whole-body health, helping clinicians screen for diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma and macular degeneration without dilation or specialty equipment.
G-Tech Medical builds the GutTracker, a thin wireless wearable patch its team calls an 'EKG for the Gut.' Worn on the abdomen for up to six days at home, the patch reads the faint electrical signals that drive the stomach, small intestine, and colon, then streams them over Bluetooth to the cloud, where algorithms turn the noise into patient-specific motility data. The Mountain View company aims to replace short, single-organ, in-clinic tests with continuous, whole-gut measurement so physicians can finally see how a digestive system actually behaves day to day.
ClinChoice is a mid-size, global, full-service contract research organization (CRO) that helps pharmaceutical, biotech, medical device, and consumer health companies run clinical trials and bring drugs and devices to market. Founded in 1995 and headquartered in Horsham, Pennsylvania, the firm employs roughly 4,000 people across the Americas, Europe, and Asia-Pacific, offering clinical development, biometrics, safety/pharmacovigilance, regulatory affairs, post-marketing real-world evidence, and technology services. After rebranding from Fountain Medical Development (FMD K&L) in 2020 and raising a $150M Series E in 2022, ClinChoice has grown through acquisitions to serve six of the top ten pharma companies while focusing on emerging and mid-size biotech innovators.
NovaScan is a Chicago-based clinical-stage oncology company building low-cost, point-of-care devices that detect cancer in real time. Its platform pairs spectral bioimpedance with machine learning around a single biophysical signal - the Cole relaxation frequency, which differs by orders of magnitude between cancerous and healthy tissue. Two lead products, nsCanary for assessing biopsy cores and MarginScan for checking surgical excision margins, aim to deliver answers in seconds instead of the days that conventional pathology can take.
OPT Industries is an MIT-spun materials foundry in Medford, Massachusetts that built the world's first roll-to-roll 3D printing platform, RAMP. By pairing computational design software with continuous additive manufacturing, OPT prints micron-precise materials at unlimited length and high volume - producing everything from the InstaSwab COVID-19 nasal swab to flockless cosmetic applicators and false eyelashes. The pitch is simple: one process, endless possibilities.
Sovato is a Santa Barbara health-tech company building the first comprehensive, system-agnostic platform for remote robotic surgery and procedures - what the industry calls telesurgery. Co-founded by surgical-robotics pioneer Yulun Wang and healthcare strategist Cynthia Perazzo, Sovato lets a skilled surgeon operate a robotic system from hundreds or thousands of miles away, aiming to extend top surgical care to patients regardless of where they live. The company has raised $41M across its rounds and helped enable the longest-distance telesurgery ever completed.
Theradaptive is a clinical-stage biotech in Frederick, Maryland that re-engineers therapeutic proteins so they bind to materials and stay exactly where a surgeon places them. Its lead protein, AMP2, is a material-binding variant of the bone-growth protein rhBMP-2; combined with an implantable scaffold it becomes OsteoAdapt, a regenerative product being tested in spinal fusion, dental, and orthopedic procedures. Founded by MIT-trained Army veteran Luis Alvarez after seeing battlefield injuries, the company aims to make biologics safer by keeping them on-target.
Shawn O'Neil is the CEO of ViaLase, a clinical-stage medtech company building FLIGHT, an incision-free femtosecond laser procedure for glaucoma. He spent more than two decades at Alcon rising to head of sales and marketing for surgical glaucoma, then ran commercial at Sight Sciences before joining ViaLase as Chief Commercial Officer and stepping up to CEO in July 2025. His career has been a running tour of the products that reshaped eye surgery: EX-PRESS, LenSx, CyPass, OMNI, TearCare, and now a laser that treats glaucoma without ever touching the eye with a blade.
Eran Steinberg is a serial entrepreneur, prolific inventor, and IP strategist who co-founded FotoNation in 1997 - selling it, buying it back, and doing it again a third time. Best known for pioneering the automatic red-eye removal technology now standard in virtually every digital camera and smartphone on earth, he holds 300+ patents across imaging, medical devices, and drug development. A licensed USPTO patent agent with four graduate and undergraduate degrees - including both a B.F.A. in Fine Art Photography and an M.S. in Imaging Science - he bridges the worlds of deep technology and creative vision. Currently CEO and Chairman of Vaica Medical and Chairman of FotoNation following a third management buyout, he also lectures at Johns Hopkins University.
John R. Adler Jr., MD is a neurosurgeon, inventor, and serial entrepreneur best known for inventing the CyberKnife robotic radiosurgery system at Stanford University - a device that has treated over two million patients worldwide. Now CEO of ZAP Surgical Systems in San Carlos, California, he leads development of the ZAP-X gyroscopic radiosurgery platform: a self-shielded, vault-free system that brings precision brain radiosurgery to outpatient settings globally. A 2025 inductee into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, Adler is also co-founder and former editor-in-chief of Cureus, an open-access medical journal acquired by Springer Nature. With over 300 peer-reviewed publications and 20+ US patents, he holds the Dorothy and TK Chan Professorship Emeritus at Stanford.
Karim Karti is the CEO of RapidAI, a deep clinical AI company whose platform is used in 2,500+ hospitals across 100+ countries for stroke, vascular, and radiology workflows. He brings 22+ years from GE Healthcare — including running its $9B imaging division — and a stint as COO of iRhythm, where he doubled revenues to $210M in 18 months. Trained as an engineer in France and a former P&G brand manager, he now leads one of the most clinically validated AI platforms in medicine, backed by 700+ published studies and 10+ million scans processed.

Nichole Garcia is Co-Founder and President of OrthoFX, the doctor-delivered clear aligner startup she built with two former Invisalign executives. With a BS in Biochemistry from UCLA, an MBA from Pepperdine, and a diploma from Oxford, she spent two decades running global divisions at Philips Oral Care and Align Technology before co-founding OrthoFX in 2017. The company raised $17M total - including a $13M Series A led by SignalFire in 2020 - to commercialize a proprietary FXTetra polymer that delivers 50% faster treatment, paired with an AI-powered remote monitoring platform called FXOnTrack.

Satoshi Sugie is the Co-founder and CEO of WHILL, a San Mateo-based personal mobility company that has reimagined the electric wheelchair as a design-forward consumer product. Drawing on his automotive design background at Nissan, Sugie co-founded WHILL in 2012 with a mission to redefine how people perceive and use mobility devices. Under his leadership, WHILL has grown to 350 employees, expanded to 30+ countries, raised over $153 million in funding, and deployed nearly one million autonomous rides at airports worldwide including Tokyo's Haneda, Rome Fiumicino, and Narita. Named to Silicon Valley Business Journal's 40 Under 40 in 2017 and recognized by TIME Magazine's 50 Best Inventions, Sugie's approach treats mobility not as a medical necessity but as an aspirational lifestyle product.
ZAP Surgical Systems is a San Carlos, California medical device company that designed and manufactures the ZAP-X Gyroscopic Radiosurgery platform - a self-shielded, vault-free system for non-invasive treatment of brain tumors and other intracranial conditions. Founded by Stanford neurosurgeon and CyberKnife inventor John R. Adler, ZAP is on a mission to democratize stereotactic radiosurgery by eliminating the need for radioactive isotopes and concrete bunkers.

Mike Yang is the co-founder and CEO of LuxCreo, the company behind the world's first FDA Class II 510(k)-cleared direct-print clear aligner. A Harvard PhD and Wharton MBA, Yang spent a decade at Bloom Energy raising over $1B in green technology before pivoting to reinvent dentistry with light-based additive manufacturing. Under his leadership LuxCreo secured backing from Kleiner Perkins, achieved FDA clearance in 2022, launched in Europe in 2025, and is pushing same-day, in-clinic aligner production into mainstream dentistry.
CPAP.com is the largest internet retailer of CPAP equipment for sleep apnea treatment, founded in 1999 by Johnny Goodman and his father in Stafford, Texas. The family-owned e-commerce company carries over 1,000 products including CPAP machines, BiPAP machines, masks, and accessories from all major brands, helping more than 2.3 million people find effective sleep apnea therapy. With 25+ years of experience, a community of 40,000+ members on CPAPtalk.com, and institutional backing from Cathay Capital and The Silverfern Group, CPAP.com has become the go-to destination for both new and experienced sleep apnea patients navigating their treatment journey.
Viz.ai is an AI-powered care coordination platform trusted by over 2,000 hospitals across the United States. The company's suite of 50+ FDA-cleared algorithms analyzes medical imaging data in real time - detecting strokes, brain hemorrhages, aneurysms, pulmonary embolisms, and cardiac conditions - then instantly alerts the right clinical team so treatment can begin minutes faster. Founded in 2016 by neurosurgeon Dr. Chris Mansi and machine learning researcher Dr. David Golan, Viz.ai has grown into a platform covering 230 million lives, supporting 70,000+ healthcare providers, and partnering with 14+ leading pharmaceutical companies to accelerate drug development and patient access.
Zack Scott is a General Partner and Co-Head of the Healthcare Investment Team at Norwest Venture Partners, one of Silicon Valley's most active multi-stage venture capital firms. A rare combination of clinically trained physician and seasoned investor, Scott brings an MD from UT Health San Antonio and an MBA from Duke's Fuqua School of Business to a career that spans surgical residency, healthcare venture investing at Burrill & Company, co-founding Revelation Partners (a healthcare-focused secondary investment firm), and now leading healthcare deals at Norwest. His portfolio includes companies like ShiraTronics, SetPoint Medical, Cytovale, and Galvanize Therapeutics, with notable exits including Omada Health's IPO and acquisitions by Stryker, Zoll Medical, Abbott, and Olympus.

John McCutcheon is President, CEO, and Director of EBR Systems, Inc., the Sunnyvale-based medical device company behind the WiSE CRT system - the world's first FDA-approved leadless solution for left ventricular pacing. With over 40 years in medical device sales, marketing, and general management, McCutcheon has shepherded EBR through pivotal clinical trials, FDA Breakthrough Device Designation, and the landmark FDA approval in April 2025. Before EBR, he led Ceterix Orthopaedics to a $105 million acquisition by Smith & Nephew. He brings a track record of building and selling medical device companies, now steering EBR's commercial launch of a technology that could transform how heart failure patients receive cardiac resynchronization therapy.
Rami Elghandour is Chairman and CEO of Arcellx (NASDAQ: ACLX), a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing next-generation cell therapies for cancer and autoimmune diseases. An engineer turned venture capitalist turned serial CEO, he has led two successful IPOs, built two multibillion-dollar public companies, and raised over $1.75 billion in capital. At Arcellx, he transformed the company from an early-stage startup into a commercial-ready organization with a peak valuation exceeding $6 billion, advancing the anito-cel BCMA CAR-T therapy toward FDA approval for relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma. A TEDx speaker on unconscious bias and gender equity, Rami is also an executive producer of the Oscar-nominated documentary 'The Voice of Hind Rajab' and the Sundance-premiered 'American Doctor.'