neuromodulation
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Boston Scientific Built a $20 Billion Business From Smaller Incisions
The company’s most durable idea is also its smallest: reach the disease through a vessel, an opening or a pinprick - then turn that procedure into a platform.
Medtronic
Medtronic began by repairing hospital electronics in a Minneapolis garage. Seventy-seven years later, its devices sit inside bodies, beside beds, and at the center of a high-stakes contest to make medicine less invasive, more measurable, and easier to scale.
Axon Therapies, Inc.
Axon Therapies is a clinical-stage medical device company developing SAVM (Splanchnic Ablation for Volume Management), a minimally invasive, implant-free catheter procedure that ablates the greater splanchnic nerve to calm an overactive sympathetic nervous system and rebalance blood volume in patients with heart failure - particularly heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). Incubated by the medtech studio Coridea and backed by leading healthcare investors, the company is advancing its Satera Ablation System through randomized, sham-controlled feasibility trials.
Axonis Therapeutics
Axonis Therapeutics is a Boston-based, neuro-focused biotechnology company developing first- and best-in-class oral small-molecule medicines that target KCC2, a chloride transporter that acts as the brain's master regulator of inhibitory neurotransmission. Spun out of research from Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School and Universite Laval, Axonis is advancing its lead candidate AXN-027 - a first-in-class KCC2 potentiator - toward clinical proof of concept in epilepsy, chronic pain and other CNS disorders, backed by an oversubscribed $115 million Series A closed in 2024.
Cognito Therapeutics, Inc.
Cognito Therapeutics is a Cambridge, Massachusetts clinical-stage neurotechnology company spun out of MIT that develops non-invasive, wearable therapy for neurodegenerative disease. Its lead product, Spectris, delivers precise gamma-frequency light and sound stimulation through connected glasses and headphones to evoke gamma brain oscillations, with the goal of slowing cognitive and functional decline in Alzheimer's disease. Spectris AD holds FDA Breakthrough Device Designation and is being evaluated in the HOPE Study, described as the largest medical device trial focused solely on Alzheimer's disease.
Enspire DBS Therapy, Inc.
Enspire DBS Therapy is a Cleveland-based, clinical-stage medical device company commercializing deep brain stimulation (DBS) paired with physical rehabilitation to restore arm and hand function in people living with chronic impairment after a stroke. Spun out of Cleveland Clinic in 2010, the company builds on more than a decade of research targeting the brain's dentate nucleus to re-establish neurological input during rehab. Its DBS-plus-rehab approach showed encouraging results in the first-in-human EDEN trial published in Nature Medicine, and Enspire is now running RESTORE, a multicenter pivotal study aimed at FDA marketing authorization.
Presidio Medical, Inc.
Presidio Medical is a clinical-stage medical device company in San Mateo, California, developing a proprietary Ultra Low Frequency (ULF) neuromodulation platform. By delivering very low frequency biphasic electrical currents through leads implanted in the epidural space, Presidio's spinal cord stimulation system reversibly blocks the conduction of pain signals along nerves without damaging tissue. Its first target is chronic nociceptive low back pain, a large and underserved indication with no approved SCS therapy. Backed by Deerfield Management and others, the company raised a $72M Series C in 2023 and received FDA IDE approval in 2025 to run its global pivotal FULFILL trial.
Nudge
Nudge is a San Francisco neurotechnology company building non-invasive, whole-brain interfaces powered by focused ultrasound. Founded in 2024 by Coinbase co-founder Fred Ehrsam alongside Jeremy Barenholtz and Quintin Frerichs, the company aims to stimulate and image deep brain circuits with millimeter precision - no surgery required. Its first human-ready system, Nudge Zero, is being used in research studies today, with a long-term goal of a headphone-like consumer device that lets people shift their brain state - sleep, focus, mood, habits - at the press of a button. Nudge raised a $100M Series A in July 2025 led by Thrive Capital and Greenoaks.
XII Medical
XII Medical is a Union City, California medical device company building a minimally invasive neuromodulation therapy for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Founded in 2017 and led by CEO Garrett Schwab, the company is developing an implantable platform designed to be smaller, more flexible and easier to implant than existing nerve-stimulation systems - an alternative for the estimated 425 million people worldwide with moderate-to-severe OSA who struggle with CPAP masks. Backed by Cleveland Clinic, Ajax Health, Omega Funds and Intuitive Ventures, XII Medical closed a $45M Series B in August 2024 to fund product and clinical development.
Attune Neurosciences, Inc.
Attune Neurosciences is a San Francisco-based, clinical-stage medical device company building what it calls the first wearable, non-invasive focused-ultrasound system for deep brain therapy. Its investigational headband, ATTN201, uses low-intensity transcranial focused ultrasound (tFUS) to reach precise deep-brain targets - like the central medial thalamus - while recording EEG and head movement, aiming to treat sleep and wake disorders, depression, addiction recovery, and other neurological and psychiatric conditions without drugs or surgery.
Coherence Neuro
Coherence Neuro is a San Francisco medical-device company building closed-loop neurotechnology to treat cancer as a continuously monitored condition rather than a reactive battle. Founded in 2022 by University of Cambridge researchers Ben Woodington and Elise Jenkins, the company decodes the body's electrical signals in real time and delivers adaptive, AI-tuned stimulation through its flagship SOMA system - a wireless implant, wearable, and mobile app working together. Backed by a $10M seed round led by Artesian and Topology Ventures, Coherence aims to begin first-in-human trials in 2026.
Elemind Technologies
Elemind Technologies is a Cambridge, Massachusetts neurotech company spun out of MIT that makes a wearable EEG headband which reads your brainwaves and plays phase-locked acoustic pulses through bone conduction to help you fall asleep faster - without drugs. Founded by a group of leading neuroscientists and led by CEO Meredith Perry, the company launched its $399 'sleep on demand' headband in 2024 after raising $12 million in seed funding. Its broader ambition is an 'app store for the brain': one wearable running different neuromodulation protocols for sleep, tremor, memory and beyond.
NeuroBionics
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.
Neural Galaxy
Neural Galaxy (also operating as Galaxy Brain Scientific) is a Beijing-based brain science company building a precision, non-invasive neuromodulation platform. Its proprietary personalized Brain Functional Sectors (pBFS) technology maps over 200 functional regions of an individual brain, then guides targeted transcranial magnetic stimulation with millimeter accuracy. Founded in 2019 by Harvard and MIT neuroscientists with serial entrepreneur Coach Wei, the company is running clinical and registration trials across depression, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, autism and aphasia, and has raised roughly $93M to date.