HQ Team
September 10, 2026: A team of neurosurgeons, medical robotics specialists, and advanced energy systems engineers is building a device that uses high-intensity sound waves to break down targeted diseased tissue without incisions, heat, or trauma, enabling the body to heal itself naturally.
The device, made by a start-up, Petal Surgical Inc., steps away from surgery, which relies on cutting, burning, or mechanically manipulating tissue to treat disease.
Precisely controlled high-intensity sound waves are focused deep inside the body to form a single, predictable vapour cavity. A cloud of small bubbles forms, expands, and collapses in front of the vapour-filled cavity, liquefying all the cells in the region.
The liquefied region is left with non-viable subcellular debris that is naturally absorbed and eliminated by the body, according to a company statement posted on its website.
Complications in surgery
The device uses millisecond pulse histotripsy — a unique form of focused, therapeutic ultrasound — that causes acoustic liquefaction.
Surgical complications kill more people each year than HIV, malaria, and tuberculosis combined, according to the UK-based National Institute for Health and Care Research.
Surgery-related deaths account for about 4.2 million deaths worldwide, according to The Lancet journal. About 50% of surgical costs stem from managing complications, and two billion people lack access to safe surgical care, according to the National Institutes of Health.
Prash Chopra, founding Chief Executive Officer and Director of the California-based company, said in June that his company got new funding led by Blue Pool Capital, with participation from Salience Capital, A&E Investments, TIME Ventures, and existing investors including Actions Capital (fka K50 Ventures).
First-in-human studies
The financing follows continued preclinical progress as the company advances its incisionless surgery platform toward first-in-human studies.
“We invest in innovative market leaders who have bigger ambitions than incremental change,” said Christopher Wu, Chief Investment Officer at Blue Pool Capital. “In Petal we see a big opportunity to change and improve healthcare, beginning with incisionless surgery.”
Despite significant advances in surgical tools and robotics, the fundamental constraints of surgery have remained largely unchanged. Petal is developing a new category of incisionless surgery based on acoustic liquefaction enabled by a proprietary form of histotripsy called MillisecondPulse Histotripsy.
The system combines advances in biophysics and physical AI to enable targeted tissue treatment without incisions, thermal damage, or toxic energy delivery.
Joe Tsai
Blue Pool Capital, a multi-strategy investment firm based in Hong Kong, manages the assets of Joe Tsai, the firm’s senior management members, and a group of the world’s most influential families. The firm invests globally in public equity, private equity, real estate, and credit.
A&E Investments is a venture capital firm based in San Francisco. The firm invests in early-stage companies across artificial intelligence, semiconductor technologies, quantum computing, and advanced computing infrastructure.
Salience Capital, a venture capital firm founded by Lip-Bu Tan and Abhay Parasnis and managed by Andrew Tan, focuses on early-stage investments in artificial intelligence, enterprise software, and advanced computing infrastructure.
TIME Ventures is the private venture capital vehicle of Salesforce CEO and TIME magazine owner, Marc Benioff. Established in 2019, TIME Ventures focuses on early-stage companies across core themes of health, AI, sustainability, and software.
