Venous Thromboembolism
(VTE)
Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT)
Blood clot in a deep vein, usually in the leg
Pulmonary Embolism (PE)
Blood clot travels from the leg to the lung, blocking flow
900K cases
in the U.S. each year1
100K deaths
in the U.S. each year1
3rd leading
cardiovascular cause of death behind heart attack and stroke2
Limitations with current treatments:
Thrombolytics
- High Bleeding Risk
- Requires ICU Monitoring
- Lengthy treatment time before symptoms subside
- Doesn’t address high-risk emergent situations
Mechanical Thrombectomy Devices
- Inefficient
- Procedurally Complex
- Blood Loss
- Difficulty reaching target
Our Solution
Simplifying Thrombectomy
Efficient Clot Removal
Catheter collects and breaks up large, mixed morphology clots
Single-pass Procedure
Low-profile catheter navigates tortuous anatomy without crossing the clot
Easy to Use
Simple setup with compact equipment
Company
Akura Medical, Inc. is a portfolio company of Shifamed, LLC., a highly-specialized medical innovation hub focused on developing advanced solutions that get to market faster, reduce risk, increase impact, and forge a path toward a world where all people are able to lead longer, healthier lives.

Murali Srivathsa
President & CEO

David Voris
Chief Financial Officer

Aadel Al-Jadda
Co-Founder & VP of R&D

Joann Heberer
Senior Vice President
QA, RA, CA

Praveen Dala
Vice President, Console

Amr Salahieh
Co-Founder and Chairman

Mariam Maghribi
Chief Business Officer

Debbie White
SVP Human Resources

Robert Edesess
Vice President,
Intellectual Property
Interested in joining the team?
View open positions with Akura Medical and Shifamed’s other portfolio companies.
Note: Principals only. No third-party referrals will be accepted without prior approval by Shifamed. As a general practice, Shifamed does not accept unsolicited resumes or placement information from any individual or agency that supplies candidates for a fee.
News
MedTech Strategist Article – Great Aspirations: New Mechanical Approaches to Treating Pulmonary Embolism
Just over a year ago, Murali Srivathsa joined Akura Medical as CEO, leaving his position as the head of global marketing for Abbott’s heart failure division. With 25 years of experience in commercial and marketing roles, including multiple exits in the cardiac space, Srivathsa believes that mechanical treatment of venous thromboembolism (VTE), which encompasses both PE and deep vein thrombosis (DVT), is on the cusp of strong growth. “There is a fair amount of competition here and a lot of new players trying to enter the market, which I feel is good because the market has low penetration and there are many patients that need this technology,” he says.
Akura Medical Announces Successful First-in-Human Use of its High Performance Mechanical Thrombectomy Platform
Los Gatos, Calif., May 10, 2023 – Akura Medical, a Shifamed portfolio company focused on a differentiated approach delivering an effective solution to address the major challenges of venous thromboembolism (VTE), announced today it has initiated its first-in-human clinical study of the Akura Mechanical Thrombectomy Platform. The Akura platform is a low-profile solution designed to easily access and efficiently remove large volume, mixed morphology clots, and eliminate the guesswork around the procedure. The initial 5 cases were performed in the Republic of Georgia and marked the first use of mechanical thrombectomy for pulmonary embolism (PE) in the country.
Akura Medical, A Shifamed Portfolio Company, Appoints Murali Srivathsa as President and CEO
CAMPBELL, CA – April 19, 2022 – Akura Medical, Inc., a Shifamed portfolio company, announced today that seasoned medtech executive, Murali Srivathsa, has joined as President and CEO. With over two decades of industry experience, Murali brings a wealth of medical device and senior leadership expertise. He joins as the team finalizes product development of its next-generation thrombectomy device.
Akura Medical, A New Shifamed Portfolio Company, Closes $25M in an Oversubscribed Series A1 Financing
CAMPBELL, CA – January 10, 2022 – Akura Medical, Inc., a Shifamed portfolio company, announced today the closing of its $25M Series A1 financing, which will be used to support the development of its next-generation thrombectomy device. The financing was led by Cormorant Asset Management, with participation from The Capital Partnership (TCP), PA MedTech VC Fund and Shifamed angel investors.

Murali Srivathsa
President & CEO
Before joining Abbott in 2017, Murali was the Vice President and General Manager of Cardiac Management Solutions at ZOLL. ZOLL acquired Kyma Medical Technologies, where he served as President and CEO. Prior to Kyma, Murali was the Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Customer Operations at Corventis, a pioneer in wireless technologies for the treatment of cardiovascular disease, before being acquired by Medtronic in 2014.
Earlier in his career, at both Boston Scientific’s Cardiac Rhythm Management (CRM) and Guidant CRM, Murali helped bring nascent therapies to market in various marketing and sales roles. These technologies included heart failure leads and delivery systems, wireless CRT-D devices, and wireless home monitoring.
Murali holds a B.E. in Electronics Engineering from Bangalore University, India, an Executive Masters in International Trade from the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, and an M.B.A. from IMD, Switzerland.

Amr Salahieh
Co-Founder and Chairman
Amr is a seasoned medical device entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience in the medical device industry. Amr is the founder of Shifamed LLC, a Silicon Valley-based medical device innovation hub founded in 2009, from which Legacy Portfolio Companies Maya Medical, Kalila Medical, Apama Medical, and Nuvera Medical have successfully exited and through which 10 additional companies are currently under incubation. Prior to founding Shifamed, Amr founded Sadra Medical, a percutaneous aortic valve replacement company, and co-founded Embolic Protection, Inc. (EPI), which were both sold to Boston Scientific. Amr is either the inventor or co-inventor on >100 granted and >140 published US patent applications. He holds a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University.

Aadel Al-Jadda
Co-Founder & VP of R&D
Aadel is an accomplished medical device R&D executive with over 20 years of experience developing and commercializing Class II and Class III medical technologies such as infusion pumps, neurovascular clot retrievers, and laser ablation catheters. Most recently, Aadel led the robotic instrument development of the Auris Monarch robotic endoscope platform (Acquired by J&J). As an early member of Auris, he also played a key role in the early feasibility testing of the system, identifying high-value clinical applications and supporting regulatory milestones. The Monarch system has received several distinctions for its design, including an Edison Award Gold Medal and Red Dot: Best of the Best award for Product Design. Aadel is motivated to continue using his extensive design and management experience to create medical technologies that help people live healthier and longer lives. He holds a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, an M.S. in Human Factors Engineering from Wright State University, and an M.B.A. from University of Rochester’s William E. Simon Graduate School of Business.

Mariam Maghribi
Chief Business Officer
Mariam has over 15 years of experience in business strategy, finance, R&D and operations in the medical device and diagnostic sector. Prior to Shifamed, she served as Chief Operating Officer for deltaDOT QSTP-LLC, a joint venture between Imperial College of London and Qatar Foundation. Mariam is an inventor on 21 issued U.S. patents. She holds a B.S. from Georgia Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of California, Davis. She also earned dual M.B.A. degrees from Columbia Business School and the UC Berkley Haas School of Business.

Joann Heberer
Senior Vice President QA, RA, CA
Joann has over 30 years of experience in medical devices. She started her career at Guidant Vascular, where she held positions in manufacturing and R&D, with increasing responsibility for program development. Joann took a sales position in Guidant’s cardiac rhythm organization, where she provided technical support for pacemakers, defibrillators, and cardiac resynchronization devices. She returned to product development and expanded her role beyond R&D to include regulatory and clinical. She has also held leadership roles within Boston Scientific, Covidien (Acquired by Medtronic), and TauTona Group. Joann joined Shifamed in 2011 and has been a part of three Shifamed companies (Maya Medical, Kalila Medical, and Apama Medical) with responsibilities in R&D, regulatory, and clinical. She holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo and an M.S. from Stanford University.

David Voris
Chief Financial Officer
David serves as Akura Medical’s Chief Financial Officer and is also CFO for each of Shifamed’s portfolio companies. He brings over 25 years of experience in financial and operating executive leadership roles for early-stage and mid-sized medical device and life science companies. His experience includes a significant number of equity, debt, and shareholder liquidity transactions, the establishment and oversight of financial and operating controls and information systems that enable rapid scaling, and direct operational accountability. Most recently, David served as CFO and COO of Optovue, Inc. a medical device company that rapidly emerged as a leader in Ophthalmology imaging. David also served as CFO for Laser Diagnostic Technologies up until its sale to Carl Zeiss Meditech. David is a certified public accountant and began his career at Deloitte in the Emerging Business Services group.

Praveen Dala
Vice President, Console
Praveen brings over 20 years of experience developing innovative medical devices and bringing them to market. He comes to Akura from iRhythm Technologies, Inc. where he led Integrations and Health System Strategy. In this role, he was responsible for building the company’s best-in-class integration platform to help expand referral networks for health systems and establishing strategic partnerships to advance the company’s next-generation cardiac monitoring technology. Prior to iRhythm, Praveen held senior leadership roles at Vocera Communications, Inc. where he was instrumental in driving the company’s overall vision, product pipeline, and M&A strategy. He was responsible for scaling the product team and integrating technologies following several successful acquisitions. Praveen founded and served as CEO for mVisum, Inc, a clinical communications platform (acquired by Vocera Communications, Inc.) and ThoughtMatrix, LLC, a high-skill medical device engineering and R&D consulting firm. He began his career with EP MedSystems where he was responsible for developing the company’s pivotal intracardiac echo technology and solutions platform that lead to the company’s acquisition by St. Jude Medical, now Abbott. Praveen currently holds 21 issued U.S. patents for over 30 innovations and has been published in numerous peer-reviewed publications. He holds a M.S. and Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA as well as a B.E. from Mysore University in India.

Robert Edesess
Vice President, Intellectual Property
Robert has over a decade of experience advising life sciences start-ups. Before joining Shifamed, Robert served as Assistant General Counsel, Intellectual Property for Thoratec Corporation. He supported integration of the Thoratec business into St. Jude Medical and then joined the IP Litigation group at Abbott following its acquisition of St. Jude Medical. Earlier, Robert worked at a global law firm and MedTech patent boutique firm. He holds a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Tufts University as well as J.D. and M.B.A. degrees from DePaul University.

Debbie White
SVP Human Resources
Debbie has over 25 years of experience establishing and managing innovative corporate infrastructures and systems within the medical device industry. She is recognized as a human resources and administrative start-up expert and an integral part of the management team for both initial public offerings and corporate acquisitions. Throughout her career, Debbie has held leadership roles in human resources and administration at various medical device start-ups. She holds a B.A. degree in Sociology from the University of California, Santa Cruz.