Updated:
Emergent Medical Partners
Emergent Medical Partners was founded by Dr. Thomas J. Fogarty, whose career bridges cardiovascular surgery at Stanford, the invention of the Fogarty...
Emergent Medical Partners
Emergent Medical Partners was founded by Dr. Thomas J. Fogarty, whose career bridges cardiovascular surgery at Stanford, the invention of the Fogarty balloon embolectomy catheter, and co-founding or chairing more than 30 medical device companies. The firm builds on his experience as a former general partner at Three Arch Partners, a medtech venture firm where he worked across five successive funds. The partnership approach is deliberately small and operator-led. The firm concentrates exclusively on early-stage medical device companies, spanning seed and startup rounds. Asset classes are limited to direct private equity and venture capital in medtech, with no disclosed allocations to public equities, credit, or real assets. Confirmed positions from the firm’s website include HeartFlow (coronary artery diagnostics), Fractyl (metabolic disease intervention), Standard Bariatrics (weight-loss surgery tools), and Relievant Medsystems (chronic low-back treatment). Geographic focus is primarily the United States, but the portfolio, now numbering over 30 companies and exits, includes firms later acquired by global strategics such as Medtronic, Abbott Vascular, and Intuitive Surgical. The website lists four team members: founder Dr. Fogarty; Robert Brownell, a former MedVenture Associates partner and TheraSense general counsel; Kirt Kirtland, a repeat medtech CEO with an MBA from Stanford; and controller Kathy Tellyer. The firm does not publish AUM or total deployment figures. Recent disclosed activity includes the acquisition of portfolio company Focal Therapeutics by Hologic, Inc. in October 2018 — the last verifiable exit on their site. There are no known affiliated philanthropic foundations, club memberships, or parallel vehicles disclosed. Emergent Medical Partners differentiates itself structurally by bundling investment capital with the clinical, engineering, and legal expertise of its general partners. The team’s composition allows the firm to take board seats and offer hands-on operational support during the regulatory and reimbursement phases, a level of engagement more typical of an incubator or operating company than a conventional venture capital manager. No succession structure or outside limited partners are publicly detailed on the firm's site.
General information
Firm type
Venture Capital
Year founded
—
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
San Jose
Corporate office
San Jose, CA, United States
Principals
Thomas J. Fogarty
Founder and General Partner
Robert Brownell
General Partner
Kirt Kirtland
General Partner
Kathy Tellyer
Controller and Administrator
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who runs investment decisions at Emergent Medical Partners?
Investment decisions are led by founder and general partner Dr. Thomas J. Fogarty, working alongside general partners Robert Brownell and Kirt Kirtland. Dr. Fogarty brings more than 125 patents and decades of medtech operating experience, while Brownell contributes legal and deal-structuring expertise from his time at Wilson Sonsini and MedVenture Associates. Kirtland adds CEO-level operational experience across multiple device specialties. The firm describes its partnership as highly integrated, with all three general partners involved in sourcing and evaluating deals.
How does Emergent Medical Partners source proprietary deal flow?
The firm sources opportunities through Dr. Fogarty’s network of clinicians, engineers, and entrepreneurs built over five decades in cardiovascular surgery and medical device invention. The general partners’ combined operating and legal backgrounds provide access to companies at the earliest stages, often before they are visible to larger institutional investors. The firm’s website highlights its ability to identify promising technologies and management teams from its own clinical and industry relationships.
Is Emergent Medical Partners structured as a single family office or a venture capital firm?
It is structured as a venture capital firm, not a family office. The firm raises capital from outside investors and operates as a private equity partnership under the name Emergent Medical Partners. Dr. Fogarty’s personal wealth from his inventions and company exits does not appear to be the sole source of capital, and the firm explicitly describes its role as backing portfolio companies and delivering results for its investors.
Does Emergent Medical Partners participate in fund commitments or only direct deals?
The firm focuses on direct, early-stage equity investments in medical device companies. There is no public evidence of fund-of-funds commitments or investments as a limited partner in other venture funds. Its portfolio, as listed on the firm’s website, consists entirely of names of directly held operating companies across multiple device sectors.
What investment stages does Emergent Medical Partners typically target?
The firm targets early-stage, seed, and startup rounds. Its portfolio companies are typically pre-revenue or early-commercialization medical device developers. Exits often occur through acquisition by larger strategic manufacturers like Medtronic, Abbott, and Hologic, as seen in the firm’s disclosed track record of over 15 acquisitions since its founding.
Which sectors does Emergent Medical Partners explicitly avoid?
The firm’s portfolio and team bios show a clear concentration on medical devices, with no investments in pharmaceuticals, biotechnology platforms, healthcare services, or healthcare IT outside of device-enabling software. Companies like Arterys represent a software component, but the firm does not list any pure digital health or therapeutics plays outside device-drug combinations like the Incline Therapeutics acquisition.
What is Emergent Medical Partners' known posture on co-investments alongside external GPs?
The firm’s website does not explicitly describe its co-investment posture, but Dr. Fogarty’s prior role as a general partner at Three Arch Partners and the small size of the Emergent team suggests a willingness to invest alongside other medtech-focused venture firms. Several portfolio companies, including HeartFlow and Fractyl, are known to have broad syndicates of venture investors, though the firm does not disclose the composition of those syndicates on its own site.
Profile maintained by Altss using OSINT (open-source intelligence), regulatory filings, licensed data partners, and verified direct submissions. Read the methodology. Last updated: . Continuous refresh with full update cycles at least every 30 days.
Need institutional-grade insight on venture capital firms?
Altss delivers:
Prefer a guided tour?
We’ll walk you through: