Ultrahuman picks up new funding as continuous glucose monitoring companies see rise in investment

Diabetes and pre-diabetes continue to be a significant health problem all over the world.  In the U.S., for example, the Centers for Disease Control says that 34.2 million Americans (10.5% of the population) have diabetes. And approximately 88 million Americans (34.5%) are prediabetic. 

As the rate of diabetes and prediabetes continues to rise, we are also seeing a rise in ways to monitor and manage the illness.

Earlier this month, Ultrahuman, a Bangalore, India-based fitness platform, received $17.5 million in a Series B funding round. The round was led by Alpha Wave Incubation, Steadview Capital, Nexus Venture Partners, Blume Ventures, and an iSeed fund from Utsav Somani.

Ultrahuman, which has been in business since 2019, is both a wearable device and a service. It offers mindfulness content, sleep tracking, and other typical healthcare monitoring features, but now also has a new feature, a metabolic activity component. A patch extracts glucose from fluid under users’ skin, and that data is then transferred to the platform, where it can be analyzed and visualized. This provides users a way to monitor their glucose levels in real time. As users move through the day, the patch can track blood glucose levels and can even let them know when their levels become high. Users can get a score based on their specific data, allowing for personalized and customized real-time information on their metabolic health.

We looked in Foundation to find other companies that have a wearable glucose monitoring option and found a handful:

1. Movano, based in Pleasanton, Calif., went public earlier this year.
2. Senseonics, based in Germantown, Maryland, went public in 2016.
3. PKVitality is based in France and is operating with seed funding.
4. Dexcom, based in San Diego, went public in 2005.
5. Nemaura Medical, based in Loughborough, U.K., went public in 2016.
6. Medtronic, based in Fridley, Minn., went public in 1976.

What does their funding look like? This heat map provides a breakdown of these companies, dates of last funding, and funding type.

Companies with a wearable glucose monitoring option that received funding by last funding type and date.

This chart shows funding totals for each of these companies. Medtronics, Senseonics, and Dexcom raised the most money.

Companies with a wearable glucose monitoring option that received funding by total amount raised.

As the rate of diabetes and prediabetes continues to grow in the U.S.- and around the world- we can expect to see more glucose monitoring medical devices and wearables on the market.