Zinc backs BioHarv: the future of battery-free, heart-powered medical devices

Meet the multidisciplinary team redefining what’s possible in cardiac care – and why Zinc is proud to be partnering with them at the start of their category-defining Science-for-Impact journey.

Harvesting the heart’s energy for continuous insight

Medical devices have changed dramatically over the last century, but one component has barely evolved at all: the battery.

Today, every implanted cardiac device relies on a battery that will eventually run out, forcing patients to undergo repeat surgical procedures throughout their lives. For many, this is more than an inconvenience – it is painful, risky, disruptive, and expensive. And as people live longer with chronic cardiac disease, the strain on patients and health systems is growing.

BioHarv is building something radically different: battery-free implantable sensors that harvest energy directly from the motion of the heart, enabling continuous, real-time, lifelong monitoring without the need for recharging or replacing a battery.

Their vision is bold: heartbeat-powered implants that prevent cardiac disease instead of just managing it. And their early progress is seriously impressive. In under a year, BioHarv has:

• Built and tested early prototypes in vivo, including animal testing to validate real-world functionality. 
• Secured their first customer, a medtech company developing a novel heart-failure therapy where BioHarv’s technology acts as a critical real-time feedback loop. 
• Secured £600K grant funding, from Innovate UK Catalyst, NIHR, and The Henry Royce Institute, and generated preliminary data for their second device, with IP in place. 

BioHarv’s innovation is not incremental improvement on existing devices; the team is creating an entirely new category of cardiac technology.

The urgency driving BioHarv

The reliance on batteries is a structural flaw in current implantable technology. Battery replacements are one of the biggest drivers of complications in cardiac device patients. Batteries create a lifelong cycle of risk: repeat surgeries, device replacements, infection risk, and a constant looming anxiety for patients.

Even alternative powering methods, like wireless recharging, risk heating surrounding tissues – an unacceptable trade-off inside the human body. BioHarv’s innovation eliminates this problem entirely by drawing energy from the body’s own motion using flexible, biocompatible materials, a breakthrough made possible by the team’s unique cross-disciplinary expertise.

Most cardiac data today is captured in hospitals, is intermittent, and limited to snapshots rather than continuous insight. BioHarv’s implants enable real-time, continuous monitoring, giving clinicians a living, dynamic understanding of cardiac function, unlocking new possibilities in early detection, personalised therapy adjustment, and preventing avoidable hospitalisations. The team is creating a future where doctors can see instantly how a specific medication is affecting a patient’s heart that same day, not months later.

And while BioHarv’s initial focus is cardiac care, the underlying technology is versatile. Their discussions with clinicians and industry partners show that the potential device portfolio spans multiple high-value unmet medical use cases beyond cardiac care.

BioHarv’s superpower is its founding team

BioHarv co-founders, Noora Almarri, PhD (CEO) and Fawaz Nahad, PhD (CTO), bring together two halves of this breakthrough innovation. They met when Noora was completing her PhD in bioelectronics and was struggling to build a battery-free implant using the rigid commercial materials available. She turned to Fawaz, whose work in flexible, biocompatible piezoelectric materials offered exactly the missing piece. What began as a technical query quickly evolved into a powerful partnership: Noora’s deep expertise in ultra-low-power circuits and energy harvesting, combined with Fawaz’s mastery of biomedical engineering and sensing materials. 

Their unique combination of complementary skills and experience has unlocked the possibility of a device neither discipline could have achieved alone. And as a founding team they are also fully aligned on values and the scale of their ambition. Noora sees entire systems and how to power them; Fawaz sees how those systems must work inside a living body. Together they are iterating fast to push beyond the conventions of cardiac device design. They have an inspiring multidisciplinary chemistry that has enabled them to move from idea to functioning in vivo prototypes in a very short time.

Complementing the technical team is an impressive line-up of experts and clinical advisors, resulting in a founding team that is uniquely positioned to redefine what implantable cardiac care can be.

A critical inflection point in cardiac care

Cardiac disease remains the leading cause of death worldwide, and the pressures on patients and healthcare systems are intensifying. Devices that once transformed outcomes are now struggling to keep up with populations living longer, with more complex conditions, and with greater expectations for continuous and personalised care. 

At the same time, three powerful technological trends are converging:

1) flexible biomaterials are maturing

2) The sensor-driven revolution in medicine is accelerating

3) Health systems are urgently seeking tools that support prevention rather than late-stage intervention

BioHarv sits at the intersection of these trends, where the clinical need, scientific opportunity, and commercial pull align. 

An enormous Science-for-Impact opportunity

The commercial landscape for cardiac devices is vast, but BioHarv’s opportunity reaches well beyond the traditional scope of this market. By removing the dependency on batteries and enabling deep, continuous insight from inside the body, BioHarv is positioned to reshape how cardiac care is delivered and monitored. 

Their platform can integrate across multiple devices and indications, giving clinicians access to richer data while reducing the burden of surgery, complications and readmissions. This commercial potential is clear in their early traction: a first customer integrating their technology into a next-generation heart-failure therapy, ongoing in vivo validation, and an expanding IP portfolio to underpin long-term defensibility. This combination sets BioHarv on a path to significant commercial value. And ultimately positions them as a highly compelling acquisition target for major cardiac device companies. 

Looking ahead to 2026

Over the coming 12 months, BioHarv is moving quickly from foundational science to a growing commercial reality. The team is focused on delivering the first iteration of their device within their customer partnership. This is a pivotal milestone that will demonstrate the value of BioHarv’s technology as a real-time feedback loop for novel cardiac therapies. 

Alongside this work, they are accelerating development of a second device, supported by grant funding, and progressing toward their next major IP filing. Their ambition is to expand into a portfolio of five devices over the next two years, each supported by robust clinical data and each addressing a distinct unmet need in cardiac monitoring or intervention. 

This next phase also includes building the team, bringing in biomedical, electronics, and materials engineers who can help accelerate development. They will also be establishing a dedicated new lab space as they transition from the company’s early scrappy roots into this next phase of growth.

Why Zinc is backing BioHarv

Zinc exists to accelerate Science-for-Impact innovation, partnering with people and organisations to build a better future for people and the planet. We back founders tackling the most pressing and complex health challenges of our time, and few challenges are as universal and urgent as the burden of cardiac disease. 

BioHarv sits at the heart of our investment thesis: a breakthrough scientific insight applied to a massive societal problem, led by a founding team whose deep technical expertise is matched by their speed, ambition, and sense of purpose. What stands out to us is their clarity of vision and determination, not just to iterate on the status quo, but to reinvent what implanted cardiac devices can be. Their commitment to prevention, patient experience, and long-term impact mirrors Zinc’s own. 

Noora and Fawaz are building a future where an implant never needs to be replaced, where deterioration is caught before it becomes dangerous, and where the heartbeat itself provides the energy required to power the device that keeps it safe. It is a vision in which patients gain peace of mind, clinicians gain deeper insight, and healthcare systems are able to operate with greater stability and efficiency.

As clinicians told them early on: they are solving a problem that has remained unchanged for 40 years – and we are proud to be partnering with them through this next phase of their journey.

The BioHarv team is always keen to hear from potential collaborators and investors who share their vision for the future of cardiac care. You can connect with the team at: Fawaz@bioharv.co and noora@bioharv.co