Respira Labs, a Mountain View, Calif. – based medical technology company specializing in respiratory care, raised $2.8m in pre-seed funding.
The company raised $1 million in pre-seed funding led by Zentynel Frontier Investments with participation from VentureWell, ImpactAssets and several angel investors from the United States and Latin America, and was awarded $1.8 million in grants from Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR), National Science Foundation (NSF), National Institutes for Health (NIH) and other startup prizes.
The company intends to use the funds to continue to develop and produce its chest wearable that uses acoustic resonance to assess lung function and identify changes in lung air volume, which is especially critical for COPD, COVID-19 and asthma patients.
Founded by Harvard and UC Berkeley-trained scientist and translational physician, Dr. Maria Artunduaga, Respira Labs helps patients with respiratory diseases through a wearable lung-function monitoring device using acoustic resonance technology. The team includes hardware, software, data science and clinical experts.
In addition to the funding, Respira has been growing and accelerating its product development. The company was selected to participate in the Massachusetts Medical Device Development Center (M2D2) accelerator program sponsored by the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA). Respira now employs 20 talented and diverse team members.
Other recent milestones include:
- Sylvee feasibility trials are underway in Florida and California.
- 30 patients have been recruited in less than a month for trials.
- The device is currently in prototype, with FDA clearance expected within the next 24 months.
FinSMEs
10/02/2022