Nashville’s VoluMetrix takes home $10,000 Life Science Tennessee Venture Forum check
Nashville-based VoluMetrix won the $10,000 prize at the Life Science Tennessee Venture Forum, held Nov. 5 at Revance’s Nashville headquarters as part of LSTCON 2026.
The Life Science Tennessee Venture Forum, sponsored by Holland & Knight, gives emerging life science startups a platform to connect with funding and potential investors. Four companies pitched to conference attendees and a panel of judges that included Chris Garabedian of Xontogeny; Eller Kelliher and Avery McConkey of Launch Tennessee; and Isaiah Reeves of Solas BioVentures. Sara Klock of Holland & Knight moderated.
Most companies that pitch at the forum come through Life Science Tennessee’s venture program. In 2026, the program counted 50 startups in its network and directly served 18. Those companies brought in $2.25 million in combined government and non-government funding.
VoluMetrix
VoluMetrix is a Nashville-based medical device company that uses the venous waveform, a signal present in every peripheral vein, to deliver clinical measurements. Backed by a decade of human research, 19 peer-reviewed publications and 58 issued patents, its platform supports eight clinical applications.
Its lead products are NIVA-HF, a noninvasive wristband that estimates cardiac filling pressure to help manage heart failure and has FDA Breakthrough Device designation, and ClearIV, a disposable device that confirms IV placement before high-risk medications are given. The company has raised $19.3 million to date and is seeking $6.5 million to fund pivotal studies, with regulatory clearance expected by late 2027.
Two-thirds of your circulating blood volume is actually in your venous system. There’s a tremendous amount of information in the veins.
Borvo Therapeutics
Borvo Therapeutics is working to prevent oral mucositis and loss of taste in patients undergoing radiation and chemotherapy, side effects that can lead to hospitalization or feeding tubes. The company’s patented dry powder forms a sticky foam in the mouth, delivering the radioprotectant amifostine locally while limiting the drug’s systemic toxicity.
Two open-label clinical trials are underway. Borvo plans to raise $5 million in seed funding to launch randomized controlled trials after expanding patient enrollment.
At the margins is where you make your major clinical discoveries, and this works at the margins. Borvo is developing a muco-adhesive foam designed to deliver treatment locally in the mouth. Our product answers: ‘How do we get a local delivery to the oral cavity in a manner that provides the drug, but doesn’t provide systemic toxicity?’
Perceptive Robotics
Perceptive Robotics is building AI-enabled robotic surgery, starting with LumenSense, a snap-on module that gives physicians a sense of touch during catheter-based stroke treatment. During aspiration thrombectomy, performed about 70,000 times a year in the U.S., physicians can’t feel whether the catheter tip is touching clot, vessel wall or open space.
LumenSense attaches to existing aspiration catheters and tells physicians what the tip is touching before aspiration begins, with no change to the catheter, workflow or cost structure. The technology comes from eight years of Vanderbilt University research. Perceptive Robotics is seeking $3 million to reach design freeze.
When every minute matters, that added guidance could make a real difference.
Provision Surgical
Nashville-based Provision Surgical is building an AI-powered augmented reality platform for orthopedic surgery, starting with total knee replacement. Its PAIR Guide system uses AI to turn a patient’s CT or MRI into 3D bone models, builds the pre-op plan and displays it on the surgical field through see-through glasses, without the bone-drilled markers used by conventional navigation systems.
The company is targeting ambulatory surgery centers and rural hospitals that can’t afford surgical robots. Currently bootstrapped and part of NVIDIA Inception, Provision Surgical is raising $1.5 million to pursue FDA clearance ahead of a planned 2027 commercial launch.
How could we provide real-time patient-specific guidance to more surgeons at a fraction of the cost? You’re able to buy 172 PAIR Guide systems for the cost of five robotics.
The lineup offers an encouraging look at where Tennessee’s life sciences sector is headed. Read our full LSTCON 2026 recap here.
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