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Nov 2024PitchBook's Auricle (Therapeutic Devices) profile labeled the company 'Out of Business'; that conflicts with later NIH/LinkedIn evidence and a 2024 SBIR award, so the status is unresolved.
SourceNeurostimulation implant to restore hearing & speech understanding
Company research
Public company, workplace, funding, and market signals
Updated Jul 30, 2026
Overview
Auricle is an early-stage medical device company from Stanford Biodesign developing a reversible, less invasive neurostimulation implant for sensorineural hearing loss. Public sources agree on a 2020 founding and Mountain View HQ, but funding figures vary across databases ($625k reported by LinkedIn vs. $850k on Caplight).
Primary product
Neurostimulation implant for hearing restoration
Founded
2020
Headquarters
Mountain View, California, United States
Team size
1-10 employees
Industry
Medical Equipment Manufacturing
Sub-industry
Hearing-restoration neurostimulation devices
Offices
Mountain View, California, United States (HQ)
Bethesda, Maryland, United States (office)
Business model
medical device development
clinical-stage device commercialization
reimbursement-backed healthcare device
Funding
Stage
seed
Total raised
$625K
Latest round
Accelerator · Apr 2023
Apr 2023
Aug 2021
Mar 2021
Apr 2020
People & investors
Leadership
Co-founder & CEO
Co-founder & CTO
Vice President of Engineering
Work & culture
Mission-driven, Stanford Biodesign-rooted team focused on restoring hearing with a less invasive implant and advancing it through clinical and preclinical work.
Compensation
The public YC job listing showed a Founding Biomedical Engineer role with $100K-$180K salary and 0.50%-10.00% equity; no broader public compensation policy was found.
Product & market
Differentiators
- —Less invasive than cochlear implants
- —Reversible surgery
- —Aims to preserve residual natural hearing
- —Targets patients underserved by hearing aids
- —Backed by Stanford Biodesign and Y Combinator
Technology
neurostimulation implant
cochlear nerve stimulation
extracochlear electrode array
minimally invasive reversible surgery
clinical and animal study R&D
Stanford Biodesign-derived medical-device development
Customers
Patients with sensorineural hearing loss who no longer benefit from hearing aids
Patients who are not ready for cochlear implants
ENT, audiology, and surgical clinicians evaluating hearing-restoration options
Competitors
Cochlear implant makers
Traditional hearing aid manufacturers
Other hearing-restoration or neurostimulation approaches
Scale & contact
Estimated revenue
USD 1M-10M
Estimated monthly visits
4.5K
Traffic estimate as of Apr 2026
Signals & risks
Latest news
SBIR / NIH · Aug 2024
Official SBIR Phase I award notice for Auricle Health Inc. with a $275,371 award and project dates from 2024-08-01 to 2025-07-31.
NIH RePORTER · Jul 2024
Official NIH project record for the same hearing-restoration device effort, naming Francis Wong as project leader and confirming the project scope and funding.
TechCrunch · Apr 2023
Mentions Auricle as a reversible surgery and implant to restore hearing as an alternative to cochlear implants, highlighting both the opportunity and the technical risk.
Fogarty Innovation · Aug 2020
Early profile of Auricle's origins at Stanford Biodesign, naming Francis Wong and Jay Dhuldhoya and describing the clinical problem and proposed minimally invasive approach.
Stanford Medicine
Stanford Biodesign story describing Auricle's hearing-loss project, the clinical motivation, and the team's early clinical study and proof-of-concept work.
Jobs and careers at Auricle
0 jobs at Auricle
No open positions
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