For Investors
The MDC Studio builds medical technology companies from the ideas of the clinicians who need them. The MDC-Verte Impact Fund gives investors exposure to that whole portfolio through a single Opportunity Zone qualified fund, rather than a bet on any one device or any one company.
A portfolio, not a single bet
Medical technology is unforgiving to single-product companies. A regulatory delay, a reimbursement decision, or a failed bench result can stall a good device for years. The MDC portfolio is built to absorb that: nine companies, nine distinct clinical problems, nine separate markets and regulatory paths, developed in parallel inside one studio.
No two companies in the portfolio compete for the same customer, and none depends on another to succeed. Combined, they address markets of roughly $78 billion growing at a blended 7.7% annually, with three of the nine sitting in categories growing faster than 15% a year. An investor in the fund holds a position across all of it.
Nine companies, four clinical segments
Rehabilitation
Next Step Robotics
AmbleBot, an ankle robot for foot-drop recovery after stroke.
The furthest along in the portfolio: a device already in use, with international launches under way ahead of a US commercial ramp.
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Rehabilitation
Connected Care Systems
Sensor-mesh home monitoring for safety and adherence in aging at home.
Among the largest markets in the portfolio, and a monitoring platform rather than an implanted device, so the regulatory path is comparatively short.
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Surgical
Surgical Vision Systems
Novel processes for sterile reprocessing of surgical instruments.
Sterile processing is one of the largest addressable markets we work in, and every hospital and surgical center is already a buyer.
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Surgical
IMERSE Surgical Robotics
µ-STAR, a semi-autonomous robot for microvascular anastomosis.
Builds on autonomous-suturing research from Johns Hopkins, in a category where no autonomous system has yet reached the market.
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Surgical
Advanced Surgical Design
A minimally invasive sacroiliac joint fixation and fusion system.
A well-established 510(k) regulatory route for this class of implant, and reimbursement coverage for the procedure is already in place.
Critical care
Vascular Rescue
AVAD, a handheld robot automating central and arterial line placement.
Vascular access is performed millions of times a year in the US, which makes this one of the largest markets in the portfolio.
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Critical care
Aerea Medical
VitalMatch.ai organ-donor decision support and the EO2 emergency airway.
Two products from one company — clinical decision-support software alongside an airway device — so a software timeline runs in parallel with a hardware one.
Diagnostic
Sonosa Medical
ApneaView, wearable ultrasound for obstructive sleep apnea.
Backed by a completed DARPA program, and aimed at a condition where the large majority of cases are never diagnosed at all.
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Diagnostic
Digital Biosciences
SepsisDx, a non-invasive urine test for sepsis at the point of care.
A Defense Health Agency contract gives it a government first customer, independent of the civilian commercial cycle.
Visit websiteAffiliated developing companies
Alongside the nine portfolio companies, three further companies are in development inside the Studio. They are earlier in their engineering and funding cycles, and are not part of the market figures above.
Shuriken Medical
A dual-lumen feeding tube designed for easy bedside replacement.
Why the studio model works
Inventors are customers
Companies are founded on needs identified by the clinicians who will use the device — vascular, spine, neurological, ENT, transplant and general surgeons, neurologists, and digital health teams. The person who specified the product is the person who has to live with it.
Combined markets
Each company has its own market, and the combined value is substantial. Investors get access to a spread of clinical categories at once, which spreads the risk across many independent opportunities rather than concentrating it in one.
Multiple routes to funding
Every company can pursue state and federal non-dilutive funding, and several can apply to the same program at the same time. Grants and contracts carry much of the early development cost, so investor capital goes further.
Shared staff and space
MDC keeps shared engineering and support staff for prototyping, back office, funding, and regulatory work. One team serves the whole portfolio, and companies working alongside each other share what they learn.
Built on Maryland's research base
MDC Studio sits in a Baltimore Opportunity Zone at 300 West Pratt Street, inside one of the densest concentrations of federal and academic research funding in the country. That is where the portfolio's ideas, inventors, and early non-dilutive funding come from.
- Johns Hopkins University — $2.43B, first in the US
- Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory — $1.5B
- National Institutes of Health — $3.9B in Maryland
- University System of Maryland — $1.4B, ninth in the US
- Henry Jackson Foundation — $629M in military medicine
- Army Research Laboratory, NSA, NASA — on-corridor federal labs
The people behind the portfolio
The disciplines represented include transplant surgery, interventional radiology, neurology, trauma and vascular surgery, biomechanical engineering, biotechnology and diagnostics, physics and sensor systems, cognition and linguistics, and investment management. You can meet them on the team and affiliates pages.
The MDC-Verte Impact Fund
MDC-Verte is a Qualified Opportunity Fund advised by Pi Analytics. It holds equity across the portfolio, and it supports company-level Opportunity Zone sub-funds for investors who want exposure to a single company while keeping Opportunity Zone treatment. Sub-funds are established for Sonosa Medical, Surgical Vision Systems, and Next Step Robotics, with further sub-funds planned for Modular Matter, Shuriken Medical, and AGED Diagnostics.
Opportunity Zone treatment
As a Qualified Opportunity Fund, MDC-Verte allows investors to defer capital gains tax and to step up basis after ten years, across the whole portfolio.
Company-level sub-funds
Sub-funds allow a targeted position in a single company without giving up Opportunity Zone status — a concentrated bet alongside broad portfolio exposure.
Maryland BIITC
Maryland's Biotechnology Investment Incentive Tax Credit provides state matching funds of 65% to qualifying investors. Details are published by Maryland Commerce.
Access and follow-on rights
Investors get direct access to company management and the option to follow on into the companies that are working, rather than waiting for a secondary market.
Fund management
Gil Blankenship PhD
Founder. Three previous exits.
Leonard Mills PhD
Chief Investment Manager. Thirty years in asset management.
Amy Hizoune
Chief Financial Officer. Two previous exits.
Jonathan Pearl MD
Fund Manager and Chief Medical Officer. Physician and investor.
Jacob Blankenship
Chief Fund Raiser. Three previous exits.
Where we operate
Baltimore, Maryland
Headquarters in an Opportunity Zone at 300 West Pratt Street, home to all portfolio companies.
Germantown, Maryland
Montgomery County Innovation Center, an Opportunity Zone, where Digital Biosciences keeps lab space.
Camden, New Jersey
Cooper University MILDAF, an Opportunity Zone, home to Trauma Logistics.
Hong Kong
Positioned for entry into Asian markets, with Next Step Robotics and Connected Care Systems.
Talk to us
We are glad to walk through the portfolio, the fund structure, and the companies currently raising. Contact us to arrange a call or a visit to the Studio.
This page is provided for information only. It is not an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any security, and it is not tax or investment advice. Market figures are estimates of addressable market size, not projections of revenue or returns. Any investment would be made only through the fund's formal offering documents, and Opportunity Zone and Maryland tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and on eligibility rules that change over time.