How Chipiron's rethinking the future of MRI

Equity

TechCrunch

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4.2 • 365 Ratings

🗓️ 24 September 2025

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Medical device funding is hitting levels we haven't seen since 2021, with investors pouring billions into diagnostics and imaging companies. But while innovation has raced ahead, a fundamental problem still hasn't changed: critical medical hardware like MRI machines cost millions of dollars and are gatekept by large hospitals. So how do you take one of the most expensive, hospital-bound technologies and make it available anywhere? Evan Kervella, founder and CEO of Paris-based startup Chipiron, joined Equity to walk us through the problem and his vision for solving it. Listen to the full episode to hear about: The unscalable nature of traditional MRI machines that rely on superconducting magnets and liquid helium. How Chipiron is building installation ease and patient experience into its scaling mission. Why Chipiron’s lightweight MRI technology isn’t designed to compete with old school machines. Longevity movement backers. Why it’s okay to chase M&A as an exit strategy, especially in the medical industry. Equity will be back Friday with our weekly news roundup, so stay tuned. Equity is TechCrunch’s flagship podcast, produced by Theresa Loconsolo, and posts every Wednesday and Friday. Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is a paid ad by Fidelity Private Shares. A messy or missing cap table might not just slow you down. It could cost you your next fundraising round. Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch's flagship podcast about the business of startups. I'm Rebecca Boulon, and this is the episode where we bring on industry experts to help us explore a trend in the tech world and dive deep. Medical device funding is hitting levels we haven't
0:21.2	seen since 2021, with investors pouring billions into diagnostics and imaging companies. But while
0:26.6	innovation has raced ahead, a fundamental problem still hasn't changed. Critical medical hardware,
0:32.1	like MRI machines, cost millions of dollars and are gate kept by large hospitals. So how do you
0:36.9	take one of the most expensive hospital-bound technologies and make it available
0:40.9	everywhere?
0:41.9	Evan Curvilla, founder and CEO of Paris-based startup Chip Iron, is here to walk us through
0:47.1	the problem and his vision for solving it.
0:57.0	Evan, welcome to the show. Thank you very much. Thank you for having me.
0:59.0	Thank you for having me and thank you in advance for your patience with me. I am under the weather, extremely jet-lagged after coming home from New Zealand last night.
1:07.0	So we're going to have fun though. We're going to talk about this. I'm really excited.
1:11.6	Sure, sure.
1:12.6	So, okay, give us a little bit of a background. You've been building chip irons since May 2020.
1:17.6	Big year for medical everything. You've already won quite a few awards for this technology and for your startup.
1:23.6	I'd love to hear more about what your vision is and how far along in the process
1:28.1	you are today. Yeah, that's a vast question. So the vision I have is exactly what you're stating.
1:33.5	Medical imaging has been at the forefront of the care pathway for a long time already. Each time
1:38.3	you have something that starts to be quite complicated. Doctors want to see through your body that
1:42.7	makes a ton of sense. MRI is by far the best medical imaging to do so.
1:47.0	In the vast majority of cases, of course, there are cases where ultrasound, CT scan makes more sense,
1:52.0	but vast majority MRI is the best by far.
1:55.0	But definitely the most hardly accessible medical imaging technique, because it's so expensive, so hard to install to operate.
	...

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