Future Cardia

Future Cardia aims to transform how heart disease is monitored.

It’s a medical-technology (medtech) startup developing an implantable cardiac-monitoring device. This company has raised more than eight million dollars and graduated from two top startup accelerators: Stanford StartX and Johnson & Johnson Innovation Labs’ “JLABS.”

Over the past thirteen years, several startups that went through Stanford StartX have reached unicorn status — i.e., a private company worth at least one billion dollars.

Future Cardia’s device is a tiny, under-the-skin sensor designed to continuously monitor heart health. The device is implanted during a simple, two-minute outpatient procedure and then runs passively in the background of a patient’s daily life.

What makes this device different, however, is the data it collects — and what it does with it.

Unlike traditional cardiac monitors that focus mainly on electrical signals, Future Cardia’s captures multiple data streams including heart rhythm, heart and lung sounds, and patient motion. This information is transmitted to a smartphone and analyzed using AI to detect early warning signs of heart failure.

Instead of waiting for symptoms to become severe enough for a hospital visit, doctors can be alerted earlier and potentially prevent emergencies altogether.

Heart failure affects roughly six million Americans and drives more than forty billion dollars in annual-healthcare costs. These costs are largely due to repeated hospitalizations.

To make money, Future Cardia plans to sell its implantable devices to hospitals, cardiology clinics, and healthcare providers. It’ll also generate recurring revenue through monitoring services and data analytics.

Future Cardia’s device has been implanted in nearly forty patients and generated more than 60,000 hours of cardiac data. The company has also raised around eighteen million dollars to date.

Team Background

Jim Georgakopoulos - Director of Science

Jim has twenty years of experience studying the science of heart failure and working with startups.

Most notably, he spent seven years at CVRx as a senior research scientist.

He later spent two years each at medical device companies CHF Solutions (Nasdaq: CHFS), serving as Chief Scientific Officer, and Barologics, which he founded.

Jim earned one Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics, and another in Systems Physiology, from the University of Toronto. He also earned a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Johns Hopkins.

Jaeson Bang - Founder & CEO

Jaeson has significant expertise in med-tech companies, and more specifically, companies focused on heart conditions.

Jaeson started Oracle Health after nearly four years at EBR Systems, a Silicon Valley-based medical technology startup. At EBR, he worked with the CTO and R&D engineers on device development, and led a team of therapy development managers and field clinician engineers.

Prior to that, he worked at Keystone Heart, a venture-backed med-tech company.

Earlier in his career, Jaeson was a cardiology account manager for Abiomed (Nasdaq: ABMD), which was creating a micro heart pump for those suffering from cardiac arrest. He was also a regional manager for CVRx, a startup backed by Johnson & Johnson developing proprietary implantable technology for the treatment of high blood pressure and heart failure.

He began his career at Medtronic as a senior clinical specialist and sales rep.

He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Biology from UCLA, and an MBA from Northwestern University.

Toshi Okabe - Medical Advisor

Dr. Okabe specializes in cardiac electrophysiology, and has fourteen years of medical experience.

He works in the Department of Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology and Cardiovascular Disease at the Ohio State University Medical Center. He earned his MD from the University of Tokyo.

Dan Burkhoff - Medical Advisor

Dan has extensive experience working in the med tech industry and a specific focus on heart failure.

Most recently, he was Vice President of Medical Science with HeartWare, a medical device company creating technology for the treatment of heart failure. Prior to that, he founded PVLoops, developers of cardiovascular educational software.

For 16 years, he was an adjunct associate professor of medicine at Columbia University. Before that, he spent a decade as Medical Director at Impulse Dynamics, another medical device company focused on heart failure patients.

Earlier in his career, Dan was Medical Director for CircuLite and Cheetah Medical, a pair of medical device companies.

He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Applied Physics from Cornell University, a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Johns Hopkins, and a Doctorate of Medicine from Johns Hopkins.

Co-Investors

Sand Hill

Angel investment group made up of Silicon Valley executives and accredited investors. Portfolio includes Swoopt (mobile fantasy sports app) and Nowait (iPad seating app for casual restaurants).