Future Cardia

Future Cardia is a medical-technology company targeting a forty-billion-dollar problem.

That problem is heart-failure emergencies. And its solution is a tiny, implantable cardiac device. This device monitors patients suffering from heart failure, and reduces the need for hospitalizations. It even enables physicians to detect signs of heart failure before the onset of symptoms.

Heart failure is a cardiac condition that often results in breathing problems and frequent hospitalizations. These patients have weakened heart muscle. As the heart begins to fail, fluid slowly accumulates in the lungs, which can lead to sudden and severe breathing problems.

In the U.S. alone, six million people suffer from heart failure. And as a chronic disease, patients and physicians are stuck between real emergencies and false alarms, resulting in referral to the Emergency Department and subsequent admission to the hospital, no matter the severity.

Invasive heart procedure devices such as one produced by Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT) are the current standard. But this device requires a sensor implant inside the heart or around the heart in a complex procedure.

Meanwhile, wearable monitors are ideal for short-term solutions. But they suffer from low accuracy, patient non-compliance, and limited data.

Future Cardia’s device offers a viable alternative. It’s a tiny, insertable cardiac device that uses multi-sensors, remote-monitoring technology, and cloud-based Artificial Intelligence for long-term comprehensive cardiac monitoring.

Implanting the device requires only a two-minute office procedure — no surgery required. It’s inserted under the skin for improved accuracy and tracks trends in heart sounds and rhythms. By tracking and analyzing these metrics, Future Cardia’s device can detect subtle changes and early signs of cardiac decline even before symptoms appear. This enables clinicians to prioritize at-risk patients and prevent hospitalizations.

It costs Future Cardia $1,000 to manufacture each device, and each one retails for $5,300. Initially, the company will target patients in Texas and Florida across six hospitals. With its business model, Future Cardia projects to bring in twenty-six million dollars in revenue through its first 5,000 units.

To-date, Future Cardia 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 (valuations of at least one billion dollars).

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