Medtronic has made two major plays in the cardiovascular space this week, leading an oversubscribed $100 million strategic financing round for Pulnovo Medical and acquiring CathWorks.
Medtronic acquires CathWorks for $585M to expand coronary diagnostics
CathWorks is a privately held medical device company, which aims to transform how coronary artery disease is diagnosed and treated. Since 2022, Medtronic has been a strategic partner of the company, co-promoting the CathWorks FFRangio System where it is commercially available in the U.S., Europe and Japan.
The acquisition is being valued at $585 million, with potential undisclosed earn-out payments post-acquisition.
"With the acquisition of CathWorks by Medtronic, we are boldly redefining the future of cardiovascular care," Ramin Mousavi, president and CEO of CathWorks, said in a prepared statement.
"As I reflect on our long-term partnership, I am deeply grateful and proud of what we've accomplished together. This deal is a testament to CathWorks' and Medtronic's shared commitment, vision, and relentless drive to revolutionize the cath lab and deliver better solutions for patients living with cardiovascular disease. Together, we have ushered in a new dawn in cardiovascular diagnosis and patient outcomes."
The CathWorks FFRangio System uses advanced computational science and AI to provide a comprehensive physiological assessment of the entire coronary tree directly from routine drug-free, wire-free coronary angiograms.
This differs from traditional wire-based fractional flow reserve assessment, which is invasive and requires the use of pressure wires, pharmacologic hyperemia, and measurements limited to a single transducer location within the vessel.
CathWorks also recently debuted one-year results from its landmark ALL-RISE randomized control trial, which showed that CathWorks FFRangio is non-inferior to wire-based physiology in terms of major adverse cardiac events at one year, with improved resource utilization and reduced procedure time benefits.
Medtronic leads $100M strategic financing for Pulnovo Medical
Medtronic is also now backing Pulnovo Medical, a pioneer in breakthrough therapies for treating Pulmonary Hypertension and Heart Failure.
While Medtronic led the $100 million round, it was joined by other big name companies including EQT, Qiming Venture Partners, Gaorong Ventures, OrbiMed, and Lilly Asia Ventures.
Additionally, Medtronic and Pulnovo entered into a commercial agreement that contemplates potential future commercialization opportunities and is designed to leverage the commercial synergy between Pulnovo and Medtronic and Medtronic's unique and extensive global commercialization capabilities.
Pulnovo's proprietary Pulmonary Artery Denervation System targets a key underlying mechanism of cardiopulmonary disease and has demonstrated meaningful clinical benefits, with 1,500 procedures performed across seven countries.
In the U.S., Pulnovo has received FDA Breakthrough Device designation and has initiated two fully approved Investigational Device Exemption trials at Mount Sinai.
Pulnovo will use money from the funding round to support ongoing clinical development, global regulatory submissions, international commercialization, and continued investment in the company's core technology platform.
It does not come as a surprise that Medtronic is continuing to invest in the cardiovascular space. For four major medtech companies, cardiology has led their earnings for the last several quarters.
Cardiovascular revenue drives Medtronic's strongest growth in over a decade
Medtronic’s financial results for the second quarter of 2026, ending October 24, 2025, demonstrated a revenue increase of 6.6%.
The successful quarter was led by its cardiovascular and diabetes segments, which have continued to triumph over competitors despite the overcrowded markets.
Medtronic’s cardiovascular portfolio revenue reached $3.436 billion, an increase of 10.8%, led by its cardiac rhythm & heart failure, structural heart & aortic, and coronary & peripheral vascular brands.
Medtronic’s PFA portfolio also led the company’s cardiac ablation solutions revenue to grow 71% worldwide, and 128% in the U.S. The quarter saw Medtronic’s strongest cardiovascular revenue growth in over a decade.
Q3 was just as successful for the company. Medtronic achieved 8.7% revenue growth during its third quarter of fiscal year 2026, reaching $9 billion to achieve its highest revenue growth in 10 quarters.
The company’s PFA portfolio led a 137% growth in the U.S. specifically, while its Cardiac Ablation Solutions segment grew by 80%.
PFA portfolio powers 137% U.S. growth in cardiac ablation solutions
In January, it saw major clearance milestones for PFA, and the same month it invested $90M in Anteris Technologies for DurAVR TAVR device development.
“Our PFA trajectory is strong, and we're progressing on multiple billion-dollar opportunities. We're reinforcing our future pipeline, and we're committed to organic and inorganic investment to further bolster the portfolio. Bottom line, we are delivering,” Geoff Martha, Medtronic chairman and CEO, said in a prepared statement.
The company has also been hot on acquisitions in general since the start of 2026. It recently announced plans to acquire Scientia Vascular in a deal valued at $550 million, with potential undisclosed earn-out and milestone payments post-acquisition.
CEO Martha commits to accelerating tuck-in M&A strategy
Martha told investors during the company’s Q3 2026 earnings call in February that the company is “very committed” to accelerating M&A. He also said venture investments, like Medtronic’s recent investment in Anteris Technologies, might ultimately lead to M&A.
“And we are focused on more like what we would define as tuck-in deals,” Martha said. “They can get up to several billion dollars. But tuck-in, in or a close adjacency to our existing business, and a number of them, though. I mean, that’s the other thing. I think it’s a fairly meaningful amount of capital among several different venture and tuck-in opportunities across our portfolio.”
Unarguably, while Medtronic is a major industry leader in the cardiovascular space, the company will face strong competition.
Intensifying competition: Stryker, J&J, and Boston Scientific make billion-dollar plays
In 2026, Stryker announced plans to acquire one of the top private medtech companies to watch in 2026, Amplitude Vascular Systems. The acquisition will add next-generation intravascular lithotripsy (IVL) technology to Stryker’s peripheral vascular portfolio.
AVS has developed the Pulse Intravascular Lithotripsy System for the treatment of patients with moderate to severely calcified peripheral arterial disease. In November, AVS announced positive safety and effectiveness data in the first 95 patients treated in the POWER PAD II U.S. pivotal study. The company said the results will support its 510(k) submission for the Pulse IVL System in 2026.
There has been significant movement in the IVL space in the past couple years. Johnson & Johnson acquired Shockwave Medical for $13.1 billion in 2024. Then, last year, Boston Scientific acquired Bolt Medical for about $443 million plus potential milestone payments.
What Medtronic's $685M investment means for cardiovascular market leadership
Medtronic's dual cardiovascular investments this week—the $585 million CathWorks acquisition and $100 million strategic financing of Pulnovo Medical—underscore the company's aggressive strategy to dominate the cardiovascular market through both organic growth and strategic M&A.
With cardiovascular revenue reaching $3.436 billion in Q2 2026 and growing 10.8%, and PFA-driven cardiac ablation solutions surging 137% in the U.S., Medtronic is capitalizing on its strongest cardiovascular performance in over a decade.
However, as competitors like Stryker, Johnson & Johnson, and Boston Scientific make their own billion-dollar plays in peripheral vascular and IVL technologies, Medtronic faces an increasingly crowded and competitive landscape.
The company's ability to integrate CathWorks' AI-powered coronary assessment technology and Pulnovo's pulmonary artery denervation platform while maintaining its PFA momentum will determine whether these investments translate into sustained market leadership or simply keep pace with an industry in rapid transformation.
