TMCx announces its next medical device cohort with 5 startups hailing from Houston

Health tech

The next TMCx cohort begins August 5. Courtesy of TMC

The Texas Medical Center's startup accelerator, TMCx, has added 19 companies from all around the world to join its medical device family.

The TMC Innovation Institute team narrowed down 140 applications to 40 for the second round of the process, which includes face-to-face interviews, according to a release. After those, 18 companies were selected to join the TMCx09 class, which focuses on medical devices. The last cohort, which specialized in digital health, concluded on June 6.

Out of the 18 companies, five are from Houston. Four other startups hail from other corners of the United States, while 10 international companies also made the cohort. The program commences on August 5, and will run for four months before concluding in a demo day event in November.

Here are the medical device startup companies joining the TMCx09 cohort.

See update at the bottom of this story.

Vascular devices

  • Neurescue (Copenhagen, Denmark) — Neurescue has developed a computer-aided aortic occlusion catheter to help save the lives of patients in the emergency care setting.
  • Venari Medical (Galway, Ireland) — Venari Medical is developing BioVena — a medical device that treats varicose veins and venous leg ulcers with a minimally invasive approach intended to reduce pain.
  • Obsidio (Solana Beach, California) — Obsidio is developing a universal gel embolic material to shrink lesions or to treat internal bleeds, aneurysms and vascular malformations.

Novel therapies

  • PATH EX (Houston) — PATH EX is developing an extracorporeal blood cleansing device designed to selectively remove pathogens, including multi-drug resistant bacteria, and endotoxins from circulating blood to diagnose and treat sepsis.
  • Innosphere (Hafia, Israel) — Innosphere is a medical device company developing brain stimulation solutions for treating cognitive disorders, with a focus on ADHD.

Rehab

  • AbiliTech (St. Paul, Minnesota) — AbiliTech is restoring independence to patients with upper limb neuromuscular conditions by offering a wearable assistive device that allows the user to perform independent activities of daily living.
  • Komodo OpenLab (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) — Komodo OpenLab has developed Tecla, an assistive device giving individuals with physical disabilities the ability to communicate, control, and connect with the world.

Surgery

  • CNX Medical (Houston) — CNX Medical is developing a transcutaneous neurostimulator that is placed in the ear and helps reduce inflammation after abdominal surgery, with a focus on post-operative ileus.
  • CorInnova (Houston) — CorInnova has developed a soft robotic non-blood contacting biventricular cardiac assist device for the treatment of heart failure that would eliminate the many adverse events associated with current technologies.
  • Ictero Medical (Houston) — Ictero Medical is developing a minimally invasive ablation solution to treat high-risk patients with gallstone disease and offer patients the benefits of surgery without the risk. The company was among the big winners at the Texas A&M New Ventures Competition.

Diagnostics

  • Artidis (Basel, Switzerland) — InArtidis has developed a nanomechanical biomarker technology using precise tissue measurement in combination with data analytics to personalize cancer diagnosis.
  • Inveox (Munich, Germany) — Inveox automates the pre-analytical process in cancer diagnosis to improve patient safety and lab efficiency.
  • Cambridge Respiratory Innovations Ltd. (Cambridge, United Kingdom) — CRiL has developed, N-Tidal, a device that analyzes CO2 end-tidal breathing to improve respiration monitoring.

Toward home health

  • Kegg (San Francisco) — Kegg is on a mission to simplify every woman's journey towards taking charge of her fertility with a user-friendly monitoring device.
  • TestCard (London) — TestCard is a flat pack urine test kit that functions in combination with a mobile phone application, turning a phone's camera into a clinical grade scanner.
  • Patch'd (New South Wales, Australia, and San Francisco) — Patch'd uses deep learning and wearable devices to predict the onset of sepsis in the at-home patient.

Transplant

  • Volumetric (Houston) — Volumetric's 3D bioprinting platform creates materials with living cells with applications in biomaterials, cancer research, and eventually human organ replacements. The company's technology started out of Rice University.
  • Tevosol (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada) — Tevasol is developing organ transplant transportation solutions. Their portable warm perfusion machines will help surgeons transplant more organs today and solve organ shortage tomorrow.

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Diagnostic Photonics withdrew from the program after the article published.

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Houston edtech company closes oversubscribed $3M seed round

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Houston-based edtech company TrueLeap Inc. closed an oversubscribed seed round last month.

The $3.3 million round was led by Joe Swinbank Family Limited Partnership, a venture capital firm based in Houston. Gamper Ventures, another Houston firm, also participated with additional strategic partners.

TrueLeap reports that the funding will support the large-scale rollout of its "edge AI, integrated learning systems and last-mile broadband across underserved communities."

“The last mile is where most digital transformation efforts break down,” Sandip Bordoloi, CEO and president of TrueLeap, said in a news release. “TrueLeap was built to operate where bandwidth is limited, power is unreliable, and institutions need real systems—not pilots. This round allows us to scale infrastructure that actually works on the ground.”

True Leap works to address the digital divide in education through its AI-powered education, workforce systems and digital services that are designed for underserved and low-connectivity communities.

The company has created infrastructure in Africa, India and rural America. Just this week, it announced an agreement with the City of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo to deploy a digital twin platform for its public education system that will allow provincial leaders to manage enrollment, staffing, infrastructure and performance with live data.

“What sets TrueLeap apart is their infrastructure mindset,” Joe Swinbank, General Partner at Joe Swinbank Family Limited Partnership, added in the news release. “They are building the physical and digital rails that allow entire ecosystems to function. The convergence of edge compute, connectivity, and services makes this a compelling global infrastructure opportunity.”

TrueLeap was founded by Bordoloi and Sunny Zhang and developed out of Born Global Ventures, a Houston venture studio focused on advancing immigrant-founded technology. It closed an oversubscribed pre-seed in 2024.

Texas space co. takes giant step toward lunar excavator deployment

Out of this world

Lunar exploration and development are currently hampered by the fact that the moon is largely devoid of necessary infrastructure, like spaceports. Such amenities need to be constructed remotely by autonomous vehicles, and making effective devices that can survive the harsh lunar surface long enough to complete construction projects is daunting.

Enter San Antonio-based Astroport Space Technologies. Founded in San Antonio in 2020, the company has become a major part of building plans beyond Earth, via its prototype excavator, and in early February, it completed an important field test of its new lunar excavator.

The new excavator is designed to function with California-based Astrolab's Flexible Logistics and Exploration (FLEX) rover, a highly modular vehicle that will perform a variety of functions on the surface of the moon.

In a recent demo, the Astroport prototype excavator successfully integrated with FLEX and proceeded to dig in a simulated lunar surface. The excavator collected an average of 207 lbs (94kg) of regolith (lunar surface dust) in just 3.5 minutes. It will need that speed to move the estimated 3,723 tons (3,378 tonnes) of regolith needed for a lunar spaceport.

After the successful test, both Astroport and Astrolab expressed confidence that the excavator was ready for deployment. "Leading with this successful excavator demo proves that our technology is no longer theoretical—it is operational," said Sam Ximenes, CEO of Astroport.

"This is the first of many implements in development that will turn Astrolab's FLEX rover into the 'Swiss Army Knife' of lunar construction. To meet the infrastructure needs of the emerging lunar economy, we must build the 'Port' before the 'Ship' arrives. By leveraging the FLEX platform, we are providing the Space Force, NASA, and commercial partners with a 'Shovel-Ready' construction capability to secure the lunar high ground."

"We are excited to provide the mobility backbone for Astroport's groundbreaking construction technology," said Jaret Matthews, CEO of Astrolab, in a release. "Astrolab is dedicated to establishing a viable lunar ecosystem. By combining our FLEX rover's versatility with Astroport's civil engineering expertise, we are delivering the essential capabilities required for a sustainable lunar economy."

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This article originally appeared on CultureMap.com.

Houston biotech co. raises $11M to advance ALS drug development

drug money

Houston-based clinical-stage biotechnology company Coya Therapeutics (NASDAQ: COYA) has raised $11.1 million in a private investment round.

India-based pharmaceuticals company Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Inc. led the round with a $10 million investment, according to a news release. New York-based investment firm Greenlight Capital, Coya’s largest institutional shareholder, contributed $1.1 million.

The funding was raised through a definitive securities purchase agreement for the purchase and sale of more than 2.5 million shares of Coya's common stock in a private placement at $4.40 per share.

Coya reports that it plans to use the proceeds to scale up manufacturing of low-dose interleukin-2 (IL-2), which is a component of its COYA 302 and will support the commercial readiness of the drug. COYA 302 enhances anti-inflammatory T cell function and suppresses harmful immune activity for treatment of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD), Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease.

The company received FDA acceptance for its investigational new drug application for COYA 302 for treating ALS and FTD this summer. Its ALSTARS Phase 2 clinical trial for ALS treatment launched this fall in the U.S. and Canada and has begun enrolling and dosing patients. Coya CEO Arun Swaminathan said in a letter to investors that the company also plans to advance its clinical programs for the drug for FTD therapy in 2026.

Coya was founded in 2021. The company merged with Nicoya Health Inc. in 2020 and raised $10 million in its series A the same year. It closed its IPO in January 2023 for more than $15 million. Its therapeutics uses innovative work from Houston Methodist's Dr. Stanley H. Appel.

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