The Heart Failure Industry Has It Wrong, This Tiny Turbine Could Fix It with Arnaud Mascarell

In this episode of Crux of Cardio, Jordan Burgin sits down with Arnaud Mascarell, CEO and Co-Founder of FineHeart, the Bordeaux-based company behind the FlowMaker, a fully implantable cardiac assist device that works in synchrony with the heart's natural contraction rather than replacing it.Arnaud shares the full journey: 18 years at Medtronic pioneering CRT pacemakers, the origin story that started with a child's toy boat, why the current approach to heart failure is fundamentally broken, and what it takes to spend a decade building a device that nobody else has been able to replicate. He also opens up on fundraising in European medtech, securing a €48M EU grant, and why he measures success in patients saved rather than acquisition price.Key Topics:Why the heart failure industry is failing patients between medication and late-stage devicesThe FlowMaker: a fully implantable, wireless, synchronized cardiac assist deviceThe origin story behind FineHeart and the CRT pacemaker connectionEliminating the driveline and what that means for patient quality of lifeWireless energy transfer as a platform technology for all active implantablesFundraising a €100M+ medtech startup with VCs, industrialists, and cardiologists as investorsRelated Insights:The IPCEI Tech4Cure programme and European sovereignty in active implantable devices5P medicine: preventive, predictable, proof-based, personalised, participativeWhy disruptive medtech innovation now comes almost entirely from startups, not corporatesBuilding digital twins and surgical planning tools to de-risk implantationCore Challenges:Current MCS devices arrive too late in the disease progression, require invasive surgery and external drivelines, and carry significant infection risk. This limits cardiologist referrals and keeps the therapy niche.FineHeart's FlowMaker is designed to intervene earlier with a minimally invasive, fully implantable device that accelerates native blood flow rather than bypassing the heart, with the ambition of promoting cardiac recovery rather than lifelong device dependence.Scaling from feasibility trials to a commercial product serving 100,000+ patients per year demands parallel investment in manufacturing, regulatory approval, and clinical demonstration, all while maintaining fundraising momentum in a risk-heavy European medtech landscape.Tune in now to hear how a Playmobil toy boat sparked a device that could transform heart failure treatment for hundreds of thousands of patients.