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Alexandre Boulanger is comfortably know for establish self - equilibrate exoskeleton atWandercraft . For his next put-on , theParis - basedrobotics entrepreneur is fronting work on a far lighter kind of wearable : An weapon system - worn patch for supervise chronic kidney disease ( CKD ) . The medtech startupMetyos , where Boulanger is chief executive officer , is a joint exploit : Co - founded with CTO Olga Chashchina , who holds a PhD in biomedical engineering where she advance special expertise with biosensors that are critical to what the couple are fix up here .
In late years there ’s been an explosion of involvement in biowearables drive by developments like the commercialization of uninterrupted glucose reminder ( CGMs ) for diabetes direction . At the same meter , rising costs of health care supply has increase air pressure on services to find smarter ways to tackle expensive military issue like chronic disease direction , without compromising timber of serving . Biowearables offer a potential itinerary to facilitate square this circle for a range of chronic wellness consideration .
Metyos ’ goal is to build up similar arm - worn ( semi - incursive ) , real - prison term smell tech , as is already established for diabetes management that can also detect chemic changes in fluid just under the skin , but that is centre on tracking biomarkers linked to inveterate kidney conditions . It wants its biowearables to be prescribed by doctors as part of a remote handling direction computer software for patients — suggesting the approach could help oneself doctor remotely spot warning sign of the zodiac link up to renalfailure and hyperkalemia .
For patient , the destination is to endow them to become a more active participant in their own care — by offering recommendations ( such as diet ) and better understanding of CKD via the app . So the startup is take a dual - sided approaching that aims to bring data - drive insight to doctors and patients . If mobile technical school has done anything , it ’s kick in consumers an expectation of having memory access to entropy and being kept informed .
The startup says its biowearable will monitor ions and minerals that can build up up in the bloodstream when kidney function is affected , post data to an app on the user ’s smartphone , via Bluetooth . From there the technical school will be designed to relay drug user data to Metyos ’ secure host in the cloud , where wellness professionals monitoring the patient ’s term can access it and remotely cut across disease onward motion .
The team bulge work on Metyos back in 2021 , with the help of “ some love money ” and a public Ulysses Simpson Grant , as Boulanger tells it . So far they ’ve built a prototype of the biowearable and carry some bench tests .
They ’ve just closed a pre - seed one shot of € 2.3 million ( ~$2.5 million ) to fund the next stagecoach of development , which will imply run clinical trials to further evaluate and rarify the technology . direct investors in the round let in Cenitz , Bpifrance and KIMA Ventures .
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Being a medtech inauguration , Boulanger confirms Metyos wo n’t bring its tech to market without regulative commendation — which he says it ’s target by the close of 2025 . In terminal figure of target area markets , the squad is focalize on Europe ( especially their home marketplace of France ) and the U.S. Generally , the stress is marketplace where remote patient monitoring reimbursement exist and/or are being developed , per Boulanger .
How did the successive entrepreneur come up with the idea for this startup ? “ I had gain a pile of exercising weight so I became concerned in nutrition tracking and by extension , in biochemistry tracking , ” he tells TechCrunch .
At the same time , Boulanger ’s carbon monoxide gas - founding father , Chashchina , was dealing with a chronic health precondition . So when the pair met , their interests array on the idea of establish a biowearable . “She has todo a lot of blood draws and wanted a cock to help her with the day-by-day management of her term , ” he notes . “ So we started with the substance abuser / patient point of opinion on biowearables and we partneredearly with Doctor of the Church to complicate the clinical pauperization . ”
The startup ’s destination is to develop a sensing wearable that can improvehealth outcomes for CKD patient and fiscal outcomes for the healthcare system of rules by enable remote biological monitoring of patients with the chronic condition .
Metyos abduce statistic that indicate there are more than 800 million CKD patients globally .
“ CKD is one of the major chronic diseases in terms of prevalence , fatality rate and cost . It is a reform-minded disease with no cure ( but many treatments for the relate conditions),so it can be crucial for affected role to slow down or stop the progression of the disease , ” says Boulanger . “We think distant monitoring allows us to foresee adverse case , enabling clinicians to make well-timed clinical decision and affected role to be more involved day to day in their own fear . ”
“ We will start with end - degree patients with hyperkalemia consequence and carry our scope down to early phase patients , ” he adds .
Metyos is at an early level but there ’s burgeoning interest in biowearables , so competitor in the space is growing . But its focus on CKD sets its apart from a number of wearable rivals . Boulanger lists five startups as its master competitors : Biolinq , Alio , Protonintel , Kalium HealthandRenalyse — the latter two also focus on kidney conditions but in their case patient role tracking is based on at - home blood draws , rather than real - clock time data being draw from a biowearable .
Sweanty ’s wearable patch for athletes tracks saltiness passing to help them hydrate
