After emerging from stealth earlier this year, Apreo Health has raised $130 million to breathe new life into the development of lung implants for emphysema.
The financing comes through a series B round co-led by Bain Capital Life Sciences and Norwest, with participation from F-Prime, Intuitive Ventures, Lightstone Ventures and Santé Ventures.
The proceeds will help launch a new randomized, controlled trial of Apreo’s airway scaffold—a minimally invasive, self-expanding implant delivered by bronchoscope, designed to help hold open damaged pathways and release the trapped, stale air pockets that can cause lung hyperinflation in people with severe emphysema.
A subtype of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, progressive emphysema affects more than 3 million people in the U.S., and can develop into chronic respiratory failure that damages alveoli and keeps oxygen from reaching the bloodstream. However, less than 1% of patients currently receive any form of interventional treatment for the disease, according to the company.
“We’ve been watching the interventional pulmonology field gain traction for years,” Norwest VP Suraj Shah and General Partner Zack Scott wrote in a blog post. “The expansion of platforms like Intuitive’s ION robot for bronchoscopy has helped democratize access to lung procedures, and we believe that momentum is creating a foundation for broader procedural innovation. Apreo fits squarely into that vision.”
Earlier this year, Apreo stepped into the spotlight to present first-in-human data from two clinical studies at the American Thoracic Society conference in San Francisco. Including 60 patients in Australia and Europe receiving up to three scaffolds, the trials demonstrated an average reduction of post-exhalation lung volume of about 750 mL at six months after the procedure, or the size of a typical bottle of wine.
The studies also reported no cases of collapsed lungs, known as pneumothorax, as well as a 92.4% success rate in implant placement—alongside improvements in lung function, exercise capacity and quality of life measures. About 10% of patients developed pneumonia, while 5% reported COPD exacerbations, according to the company. The results were simultaneously published in the ATS’ American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
“The data from this study reinforces our belief that the BREATHE Airway Scaffold has the potential to become a new standard of care for patients with emphysema-related hyperinflation,” Apreo CEO Karun Naga said in a statement during the May meeting.
“We’re developing a minimally invasive, tissue-sparing solution designed to eliminate uncertainty in patient qualification due to disease pattern and collateral ventilation and to relieve the burden of this disease on our healthcare system by enabling a more efficient treatment pathway,” Naga added. The company’s device previously received a breakthrough designation from the FDA in 2024.
Apreo was launched in 2021 out of the Menlo Park, California-based medtech incubator The Foundry—which, back in 2000, previously formed Emphasys, the original developer of the Zephyr endobronchial release valve for emphysema.
Emphasys was acquired by Pulmonx in 2009, which saw the Zephyr valve approved by the FDA in 2018. Zephyr’s pivotal trial, LIBERATE, reported pneumothorax cases in 26.6% of the study’s 128 participants, all occurring within 45 days of the procedure.
“With a strong feeling of unfinished business and resolve to help pulmonologists better treat their COPD patients, we cofounded Apreo Health with [CSO] Martin Mayse. We are delighted to see this data and what this may represent for patients with severe emphysema,” The Foundry wrote in a LinkedIn post during the ATS meeting.