Funding profile · Ophthalmic devices and materials

AesculaTech

A Y Combinator company that has never filed a Form D. Almost every dollar an outsider can verify came from the National Eye Institute.

$1.47MNEI SBIR dollars obligated, FY2023 and FY2025
$120KPrivate capital disclosed by trackers, all rounds
0Form D notices filed since incorporation in 2016
Jun 2021Last private financing either tracker records

Data as of September 22, 2026. Company-reported figures are labeled.

Rounds at a glance

When Round Amount Investors Source
2016 to 2018 Grant and accelerators, including TMCx and YC Winter 2018 Not disclosed Texas Medical Center, Y Combinator, Plug and Play Tracker, YC
Jan 2018 Seed Not disclosed Not named Tracker
Apr 2019 Seed venture Not disclosed Not named Tracker
Jul 2020 Convertible note Not disclosed Not named Tracker
Jun 28, 2021 Convertible note, second Not disclosed Plug and Play Ventures Tracker
Sep 2023 to Feb 2026 NEI SBIR Fast Track R44EY034758 $1,471,170 NIH, non-dilutive RePORTER
All rounds Disclosed private total $120,000 Biosphere Investment Group, Plug and Play, Texas Medical Center, Y Combinator, at least one angel Tracker

What the filings show

AesculaTech, Inc. · no Form D on file

Company search
No EDGAR filer whose name begins with Aescula, for any form.
Full text search
Zero hits across Form D. One hit across all forms: a Mar 5, 2021 NeuroBo Pharmaceuticals 8-K exhibit naming Andrew Bartynski as “Founding CEO for AesculaTech , a Y Combinator backed startup”.
Effect
No filed offered amount, sold amount, investor count or related persons for any private round.

National Eye Institute · SBIR Fast Track R44EY034758

Phase I
1R44EY034758-01, FY2023, $250,487
Phase II
4R44EY034758-02, FY2025, $1,220,683
Total obligated
$1,471,170
Project period
Sep 30, 2023 to Feb 28, 2026
Contact PI
Niki Bayat, listed title CEO

California Secretary of State · document 3932999

Filed
Aug 5, 2016, stock corporation, formed in Delaware
Status
Active and in good standing, as extracted Mar 25, 2026
Officer
Niki Bayat, Chief Executive Officer

Reading the filings

  1. The federal award is twelve times the disclosed private total.$1,471,170 from NEI against $120,000 that trackers have ever put a number on. The grant is the largest financing event anyone can verify, and it ended on February 28, 2026.
  2. No Form D means no floor and no ceiling.Trackers record six to ten financing events from 2016 to 2021 with amounts blank. So $120,000 is a lower bound on what was raised, not an estimate of it.
  3. The private capital clock stopped in June 2021.Both trackers put the last note or equity event on June 28, 2021. Every financing on record after that date is federal.
  4. The announced grant and the recorded grant differ.The company announced an award “over $1.5 million”. RePORTER records $1,471,170 obligated. The gap is small, and the public figure is the smaller one.
  5. Spending continued where it is cheap to check.AesculaTech patent applications were filed in March 2024, June 2024, June 2025 and September 2025, the last naming Bayat as inventor and published January 29, 2026. Prosecution costs money, which argues against a dormant shell.

Commercial signals

Signal Detail Source type
Regulatory No 510(k), approval, registration, listing or UDI record at FDA as of Sep 22, 2026. Public record
Revenue Nothing cleared for US sale, so no device revenue. An SBIR awardee profile lists revenue under $0.5M. Awardee profile
Headcount Y Combinator lists 6. One tracker lists 10. The awardee profile lists 1 to 4. None is dated. Sources disagree
Clinical NCT05748951, 33 participants, one site in Guadalajara, completed Feb 22, 2024. No results posted. Public record
Model March 2025 site rewrite emphasizes partnering and licensing. No partner named. Company-stated

What to watch

  • A first Form D, the earliest public sign of a round on Regulation D terms.
  • A follow-on NIH award after the February 28, 2026 project end.
  • A named licensee or development partner, which the 2025 repositioning implies.
  • A 510(k) submission, which would convert five years of pathway talk into a record.

The AesculaTech story on Healthcare DiscoveryHealthcare Discovery

Related companies

  • Zeta Surgical: Shared investor: Play Ventures. A computer vision system that keeps a brain target locked while the patient moves, so guided procedures can happen outside the operating room
  • inSoma Bio: Also in Medical Devices. A liquid protein that sets into a scaffold at body temperature, injected together with a patient’s own liposuctioned fat
  • VenoStent: Also in Medical Devices. A bioabsorbable polymer sleeve that a surgeon slips over a newly built dialysis fistula and leaves behind to dissolve
  • Illuminant Surgical: Also in Medical Devices. A projector on a boom arm that paints a patient’s scan onto their own skin while the surgeon works

Sources

  1. Public recordEDGAR company and full text search for AesculaTechSEC · Sep 22, 2026
  2. Public recordNIH RePORTER R44EY034758NEI · FY2023 and FY2025
  3. Public recordCalifornia business registry, document 3932999Extracted Mar 25, 2026
  4. Public recordopenFDA 510(k), registration and UDI queriesFDA · Sep 22, 2026
  5. Public recordUS 11,400,044 B2 and five applicationsUSPTO · 2022 to Jan 2026
  6. TrackerAesculaTech financials and investorsCB Insights · Sep 22, 2026
  7. TrackerAesculaTech deal history, investors and patentsPitchBook · Sep 22, 2026
  8. IndependentAesculaTech Inc SBIR awardee profileinKnowVation · Oct 14, 2025
  9. CompanyNIH Fast Track SBIR announcement and About Us pageaesculatech.com · 2023 and Mar 2025

Compiled from SEC, NIH, FDA, USPTO and California records as of September 22, 2026. Form D notices report offerings under Regulation D; a company selling securities under Section 4(a)(2) files none, so the absence of a Form D is not evidence that no money was raised. Healthcare Venture Capital Fund holds no position in AesculaTech. This page is not an offer to sell or a recommendation to buy any security.