Northernmost

Based in Edmonton, Alberta, Northernmost Medical Devices, Inc. is a Canadian startup, founded in 2022, that is developing a next-generation perfusion machine to modernize the preservation and transport of donor kidneys. The company was founded by CEO Ron Mills and COO Daniel Salamon, both of whom are veterans in the organ transplant industry and were part of the team that designed and commercialized the market-dominant kidney transporter used today. Their experience informs the company's mission to advance machine preservation technology and logistics to improve transplant outcomes.

Northernmost is focused on solving a critical issue in organ transplantation: the reliance on static cold storage (SCS), essentially ice coolers, for preserving over 70% of donor kidneys. This method is suboptimal compared to hypothermic machine perfusion (HMP), which circulates a preservation fluid through the kidney and has been shown to reduce post-transplant complications and improve graft survival. However, existing HMP machines are often too large, unwieldy, and expensive for routine use. Northernmost’s solution is the NoMo™ Kidney Pump, a device engineered to be small, simple, and smart, with the goal of making HMP the standard for every donated kidney. By eliminating the ice cooler, the company aims to increase the utilization of donor kidneys, ultimately saving healthcare payers significant costs.

The company's target clients include organ procurement organizations (OPOs) and hospital transplant centers. Its business model appears to involve the manufacturing and sale of its proprietary hardware, the NoMo™ Kidney Pump. Northernmost has achieved several key milestones, including raising a CAD 2.7 million seed round in April 2025 with participation from investors like the National Kidney Foundation (U.S.), Accelerate Fund IV, and Leva Capital. In February 2025, the company entered a know-how agreement with the Mayo Clinic, the largest transplant provider in the U.S., to collaborate on testing and advancing the NoMo™ Kidney Pump. The company is also a graduate of the Creative Destruction Lab and has completed a project funded by the Alberta Innovates AICE-Concepts program. With a U.S. hub planned for Denver, Northernmost is strategically positioning itself to serve the broader North American market.

Keywords: organ preservation, kidney transplant, medical devices, hypothermic machine perfusion, organ transport, NoMo Kidney Pump, Ron Mills, Daniel Salamon, organ procurement organizations, transplant technology, medical logistics, renal preservation, graft survival, static cold storage, Edmonton medtech, Mayo Clinic collaboration, transplant innovation, healthcare cost reduction, donor kidney utilization, organ viability