We are thrilled to announce that Applaud Medical, Inc. is the latest company to join our portfolio, following our investment in their recent Series A round.

“What attracted us to Applaud Medical is that they are solving this common, and very painful, ailment via a novel, effective, safe and cheaper way than traditional treatments.”
– Jim Jeffs, Partner, Kairos Ventures

Based in San Francisco, Applaud Medical, Inc. is a leader in the development of a fascinating new technique to make kidney stone treatment both painless and immediate. Applaud has developed a technique that would allow a doctor to treat patients’ kidney stones in his or her own office without delay. In contrast, the two current approaches for treating kidney stones, laser lithotripsy and extra-corporeal shockwave lithotripsy, require the scheduling of an operating room at a hospital, an anesthesiologist, and of a whole team of supporting staff. Moreover, the current approaches imply that the patient will continue suffering the intense pain typically experienced until such facilities are available (or take potent painkillers with their associated drawbacks).

The Applaud Medical Approach

The Applaud approach allows doctors to use low-intensity ultrasound devices to fragment kidney stones with very little risk of collateral damage which is one of the key disadvantages of the currently available techniques. The devices will cost at least 10 times less than the equipment used with the currently available approaches thus allowing for their beneficial results to reach into rural or impoverished areas which cannot afford the use of current approaches.

“Kidney stones will affect 13% of all men and 7% of all women in their lifetime.  What attracted us to Applaud Medical is that they are solving this common, and very painful, ailment via a novel, effective, safe and cheaper way than traditional treatments,” said Jim Jeffs, who will be joining the Board of Applaud Medical.

We are very excited about our investment in Applaud Medical and would like to welcome them to the extended Kairos Ventures family.