When science starts humming in the key of innovation, you get a company like SecondWave Systems, where ultrasound isn’t just for scans, it’s the sound of inflammation meeting its match. The St. Paul-based medtech player just expanded its Series A syndicate, pulling Sectoral Asset Management into the mix. No number drop, but make no mistake, this move builds on the $7M Series A that closed in April and the $15.3M in non-dilutive backing from DARPA and ARPA-H that got the signal started. This isn’t a garage startup; this is the product of deep government validation and sharper minds than most VCs see in a lifetime.
CEO Anuj Bhardwaj, a Penn State and MIT double threat who once ran The Ultran Group, teamed up with Dr. Hubert Lim, a neuroengineer whose research at the University of Minnesota reads like a syllabus on translating brainwaves into breakthroughs. Add COO Jeff Heyman, a Duke-engineered, MIT-honed operator who cut his teeth at Lumicell and Philips Healthcare, and you’ve got a founding trio that actually knows how to turn theory into therapy.
The SecondWave MINI device is their calling card, a noninvasive, wearable ultrasound system built to treat inflammatory disease by targeting the spleen, not the wallet. Instead of flooding patients with drugs that come with side effects longer than a CVS receipt, this tech activates the body’s own anti-inflammatory pathways using low-intensity focused ultrasound. Think of it as bio-ultrasonic medicine, where energy meets immunity.
Their pilot trial in rheumatoid arthritis told the story in numbers: 77% of patients showed clinical improvement, all gave positive feedback, and zero device-related adverse events. Now, the team is turning up the volume with the At-home ULTRA Study, a randomized trial across 8 sites with 60+ participants testing this same MINI system in moderate to severe RA cases. The next data drop is expected by the end of 2024, and the industry’s already watching the signal rise.
Sectoral Asset Management joining forces adds serious horsepower. Led by Marc-André Marcotte, Sectoral’s no stranger to late-stage healthcare bets, and this one hits that sweet spot where science, scalability, and social impact overlap. They join a syndicate stacked with Treo Ventures, guided by veterans Mudit K. Jain and Brad H. Vale, Scientific Health Development, and the University of Minnesota’s Discovery Capital and SSBCI funds. That’s not just money; that’s mentorship and muscle.
SecondWave isn’t just treating inflammation, it’s challenging the assumption that medicine must always come in pill form. What Bhardwaj, Lim, and Heyman are building is a future where you can wear your therapy, personalize it, and trust that it’s working with your body, not against it. The wave they’re riding isn’t hype; it’s momentum. And when it breaks, healthcare might never sound the same.
