Lite Run reports $3M private offering after Brooks deploys rehab system
The St. Paul medtech maker sold the fully subscribed offering to two investors as its air-pressure exosuit moves into Brooks Rehabilitation.
By Ryan Merket ยท Published
Why it matters
Lite Run has paired a concentrated $3 million debt financing with its strongest hospital deployment yet, giving Hauck's air-pressure rehab system a test beyond pilots and prototypes.
Lite Run, the rehabilitation-device maker co-founded by John Hauck, reported a $3 million private offering sold to two investors, according to a new SEC filing accepted on July 21.
The Form D lists $3 million offered, $3 million sold and nothing remaining. The first sale occurred on May 28, 2026, nearly eight weeks before the filing became public. Lite Run declined to disclose its revenue range, and the filing does not identify the investors, financing terms or planned use of the proceeds.
The filing matters because the offering is both fully sold and more concentrated than Lite Run's previous disclosed fundraising. Lite Run's prior Form D amendment covered a $3 million equity offering that had sold $1.57 million to 28 investors by December 2024. The new filing gives Lite Run another $3 million while leaving valuation, investor identities and specific financing terms out of public view.
For Hauck, the financing backs a product that began with a personal problem. After years developing cardiac medical systems, persistent knee pain was threatening his ability to run. Hauck teamed with inventor Doug Johnson and machine designer Mark Johnson to build air-pressure pants that could remove part of a runner's effective body weight.
That experiment eventually became the Lite Run Mobility Trainer, an overground rehabilitation system built around a soft Exosuit and a wheeled stability device. Lite Run says its system can reduce the load on a patient by as much as 50%, helping therapists work on walking, balance and strength with patients recovering from strokes, spinal cord injuries, brain injuries, orthopedic procedures and extended bed rest.
A cardiac-device inventor turns to mobility
Hauck brought an unusually deep medical-device background to the project. According to Lite Run's account of its founding, he joined Endocardial Solutions in 1993, later founded EM Vascular and returned to Endocardial Solutions after ATS Medical acquired EM Vascular. Hauck then worked on the NavX cardiac mapping system and directed robotic catheter development after St. Jude Medical bought Endocardial Solutions in 2004.
Lite Run credits Hauck with more than 90 US patents. Mark Johnson, who worked on manufacturing and research projects at Endocardial Solutions before co-founding Lite Run, holds 13 US patents and built early prototypes of the gait-training system.
The founders first created a treadmill setup that let Hauck run at roughly half his body weight. They then worked with therapists at Sister Kenny Rehabilitation Institute and North Memorial Hospital to adapt the mechanism into a mobile rehabilitation device. A $99,790 federal SBIR award in 2017 funded work on a compact assistive walker and clinical prototype testing at North Memorial Medical Center, with Hauck listed as principal investigator.
Lite Run applies the differential-air-pressure principle pioneered through NASA research, which uses pressure around the lower body to change the effective load on a person's legs. NASA's best-known commercial example is the AlterG treadmill. Lite Run's design moves that approach off the treadmill, allowing patients and therapists to practice overground activities inside a clinical facility.
Lite Run describes the product as FDA-registered. That term has a narrow regulatory meaning: the FDA says establishment registration and device listing do not constitute approval, clearance or authorization. Lite Run's published product specifications list FDA registration number 3013697488.
Two investors follow a wider equity group
The new financing is more concentrated than Lite Run's prior disclosed fundraising. A December 2024 amendment showed that Lite Run had sold $1.57 million of a planned $3 million equity offering to 28 investors. That offering began on October 20, 2023.
The latest $3 million came from two investors. The smaller group points to a concentrated transaction, although the SEC filing provides no basis to determine whether the investors are existing shareholders, strategic partners or new financial backers. Lite Run has now reported at least $4.57 million in securities sales through those two offerings.
The financing was signed by Gregg Smith, Lite Run's CEO. Smith previously held medical-device sales and commercial roles at Veran Medical Technologies, CHF Solutions, St. Jude Medical, Zimmer Biomet's Cayenne Medical and Helia Care. Hauck remains president and a director, while the filing also names David Springer as executive chair and Jerry Hu and Jonathan Leon as directors.
Brooks gives Lite Run a national reference customer
Lite Run's first sale in the new offering preceded its most significant recent customer announcement. On July 1, Brooks Rehabilitation said it had purchased three Lite Run devices after evaluating the system for several months.
Two devices were placed at Brooks hospitals in Jacksonville, Florida. Brooks said a third was planned for its Phoenix hospital on the Mayo Clinic campus. Mark Bowden, Brooks' vice president for clinical integration and research, said the evaluation found that Lite Run could help certain patients mobilize earlier with less staff assistance.
That deployment gives Lite Run a customer reference beyond pilot work and individual therapy sites. It also puts the product into the procurement cycle of a rehabilitation operator expanding across several states, where clinical results, staff requirements, maintenance and training will carry more weight than product demonstrations.
The market already includes treadmill-based pressure systems, overhead harnesses and powered robotic exoskeletons. Lite Run is betting that hospitals will value a softer, mobile system that supports overground therapy and can be operated with fewer staff. Brooks' purchase offers an early commercial test of that thesis.
The $3 million financing gives Lite Run additional capital as Smith and Hauck move from invention and clinical validation into hospital sales. The filing shows how much Lite Run obtained while leaving investor identities, valuation and specific financing terms undisclosed.