Respiratory device company Strados Labs raised $4.5M, with 2022 hiring plans

Strados Labs, maker of a non-invasive respiratory smart device and system, has raised $4.5 million with plans to grow its team and scale its platform for more trials.

CEO and cofounder Nick Delmonico told Technical.ly that cultivate(MD), a medical device venture capital fund, was this round’s lead investor — a “perfect fit,” the CEO said. Local investor Broad Street Angels, as well as SOSV, contributed follow-on funding, and Wavemaker360 Health and Blu Venture Investors also participated. Delmonico called the investors a group that “knows the stage really well.”

The team is considering this round a pre-Series A, and it brings the company’s total funding to just over $7 million, the CEO said. It’ll be focused on moving product commercialization forward in the pharma and clinical trials market. The devices allow clinicians to remotely monitor a patient’s respiratory performance with a wearable stethoscope-like biosensor device that “computerizes” lung sounds.

It’s been described by pulmonologists as the “Holter monitor of the lungs,” Delmonico told us back in 2019. The device is used as a data collection tool for patients with a range of conditions, like asthma or COPD, that sends info directly to a cloud that is then available for the doctor to view.

Since the company’s last raise, the device has gotten thinner, and Strados has fully commercialized, Delmonico said. In 2022, the company will be scaling its RESP Platform for remote respiratory trials. The COVID-19 pandemic further proved the company’s model — it’s a respiratory disease, after all — and the need for care to be able to happen and be monitored at home.

The Strados Labs team moved from Old City to Center City, near 13th and Chestnut, and is now operating with about 22 employees, 15 of which are full time, the CEO said. Plans for 2022 definitely include adding about five to seven roles, Delmonico said, after nearly doubling its team in the past year.

“We’re really excited to scale our platform for remote respiratory trials, and given the pandemic response and the huge push due to COVID, everything is happening at home,” Delmonico said. “And we’re going right along with it.”