Halifax-based medtech startup Sound Blade has secured $16.5 million USD ($23.8 million CAD) in Series A funding to develop its handheld device for eliminating liver tumours non-invasively.
Montréal-based Lumira Ventures and New York, NY-based Amzak Health led the round, with additional backing from Invest Nova Scotia.
Sound Blade said it would use the funding to expand its team and accelerate the development of its technology for eventual use in the clinic.
Sound Blade has developed a handheld ultrasound device it says can target and destroy cancerous and benign liver tumours. The non-invasive technique, called histotripsy, uses ultrasound waves to precisely eliminate tumours and leave the surrounding tissue intact. Ultrasound waves permeate the skin and create bubbles in the tumour, which collapse so quickly that they liquefy the tissue.
The Canadian Cancer Society estimated that in 2024, 4,700 Canadians would be diagnosed with liver cancer and 3,700 would succumb to the disease. Compared to surgery or radiation, Histotripsy leads to “less blood loss, fewer complications, reduced recovery time, and decreased chance of infection,” according to Sound Blade.
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Dr. Tony Natale, partner at Amzak Health, said Sound Blade’s handheld device has “truly disruptive potential.”
The company said it would use the funding to expand its team and accelerate the development of its technology for eventual use in the clinic. BetaKit has reached out to Sound Blade for clarity on what stage the company is at in the regulatory process.
Sound Blade’s funding round comes after another challenging year for healthtech funding in Canada, according to a recent report by Vancouver-based Pender Ventures. Venture backing in the sector hit $700 million CAD, an 18-percent drop from the year before.
This also marks Lumira Ventures’ second investment into histotripsy, following its investment into Michigan-based HistoSonic, whose device has received approval for “de novo” classification from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Feature image courtesy Unsplash.