Emphysema’s a slow burn, a suffocating grind that steals breath one trapped pocket of air at a time. But out in Menlo Park, there’s a company that didn’t just see the fire… they built a way to let the lungs breathe through it. Apreo Health just raised $130 million in Series B funding, and this isn’t your average medical device story. It’s a precision-engineered middle finger to destructive interventions, and a masterclass in how to scale deep science into real impact.
Founded in 2021 inside the vault of medtech innovation that is The Foundry, Apreo Health was never chasing headlines. This crew built quietly, clinically. Co-founders Karun Naga, JD, MBA (CEO) and Dr. Martin Mayse, MD (Chief Medical Officer), didn’t roll in with a pitch deck and a prayer, they brought decades of ground game. Naga? Former Allay Therapeutics CEO, ex-Medtronic strategy boss, Wharton JD/MBA. Mayse? Yale-trained pulmonologist who literally built the Interventional Pulmonology program at WashU. The duo didn’t just find a gap in treatment for severe emphysema, they widened it into a launchpad.
The tech is cold-blooded brilliance: the BREATHE Airway Scaffold, a nitinol coil delivered via bronchoscope that expands to relieve hyperinflation by letting trapped air escape, all without destroying lung tissue. No burning, no cutting, no sacrificial trade-offs. Just a permanent implant with surgical elegance. Their first-in-human BREATHE 1 & 2 trials? 92.4% technical success. Zero post-procedure pneumothoraxes. A 753 mL drop in residual lung volume at six months and real-life gains in lung function, movement, and quality of life. That’s not data. That’s transformation.
And the investors saw it. Bain Capital Life Sciences and Norwest Venture Partners co-led the round, with F-Prime Capital and Intuitive Ventures joining the party. Returning believers Lightstone Ventures and Santé Ventures doubled down. The FDA’s already on board, handing out Breakthrough Device Designation in May 2024 like they saw this coming. With this capital, Apreo Health’s launching BREATHE-3, a pivotal multicenter trial, and ramping early commercial efforts. Because three million Americans are out there waiting, and less than 1% ever get an interventional option.
Apreo Health didn’t disrupt. They designed around destruction. No gimmicks. No surgical swagger. Just deep engineering, clean data, and clinical precision. And if they stick this landing, they’re not just building a company, they’re building a new category.
