Heartflow is once again looking for a path to go public, with a filing for a Nasdaq IPO.
The developer of artificial-intelligence-powered diagnostics for coronary artery disease had once plotted a $2.4 billion special purpose acquisition company deal, late in the 2021 heyday for that type of reverse merger—but the company abandoned the plan less than a year later, as investors’ appetites for those transactions sharply declined.
But now Heartflow is heading back to Wall Street, and in the time since it has garnered new Medicare coverage from multiple administrative contractors for its FDA-cleared plaque analysis software—as well as an upgraded CPT billing code for its fractional flow reserve calculation service for CT scans, which received a de novo green light from the agency in 2014.
For its IPO, the former Fierce Medtech Fierce 15 winner entered a placeholder goal of up to $100 million, though no pricing terms were disclosed. It plans to list under the ticker "HTFL."
The company’s approach aims to tackle a leading cause of death by using AI to dissect 3D scans of the heart, identifying potential blockages in the coronary arteries and charting the movement of oxygenated blood to the cardiac muscle without an invasive procedure.
This week, Heartflow put forward data from a registry study showing its personalized plaque analyses helped direct changes in medical management for more than half of examined patients—leading to LDL cholesterol decreases and drops in cardiac risk levels—and improving upon the broader, traditional method of accounting for a person’s age, smoking, blood pressure and family history.
“These data confirm what we’re seeing in clinical practice—Heartflow Plaque Analysis provides individualized insights that go beyond what a traditional analysis of a patient’s risk factors or [coronary computed tomography angiography] alone can show,” said the study’s co-principal investigator, Sarah Rinehart, M.D., medical director of cardiovascular imaging at Charleston Area Medical Center in West Virginia.
“By quantifying plaque burden and characterizing higher-risk non-calcified plaque types, Heartflow’s technology empowers physicians to personalize care and intervene earlier, which can change the trajectory of a patient’s coronary health,” added Rinehart, who presented the findings at the annual meeting of the Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography being held in Montreal.
In its filed prospectus, Heartflow said it logged $125.8 million in revenue for the 2024 calendar year, up 44% compared to 2023’s $87.2 million. Annual net losses, meanwhile, weighed in at $95.7 million and $96.4 million for 2023 and 2024, respectively—though that rate increased in the first quarter of 2025, with a net loss of $32.3 million versus the prior year’s $20.9 million. The company listed an accumulated deficit of $1 billion as of March 31.
Heartflow has a record of strong venture capital fundraising, with a $240 million series E round in 2018, led by Wellington Management and Baillie Gifford, followed by a $215 million series F in 2023 headlined by Bain Capital Life Sciences. Earlier this year, the company announced $98 million in convertible note financing, with a new investment by Fidelity Management.
The IPO also marks the second nine-figure medtech announcement this week, following the personalized spine surgery developer Carlsmed.