By developing a device for continuous hormonal monitoring, Level Zero Health, a female start -up of a new horizon, has finished over $ 6.9 million, despite a little over a year. New companies want to eliminate the need for invasive blood draws and to support research that can lead to new treatments related to new medical innovations, such as the condition associated with hormonal imbalances and the individual medications of hormonal contraceptives.
“One of our investors say that there are companies that build basic technologies and some companies that build packaging around the technology. The co -founder and CEO Ula Rustamova discussed the company’s development and discussed the development of the company after finally checking in the fall when it was published as part of TechCrunch Disrupt in the fall in the fall.
“The goal is to create a completely new market. Like CGM (continuous glucose monitor). They literally created a billion dollar market because there was nothing, ”she continues. “This is definitely a completely new product category. I hope people can use their devices and data to create many companies on top of them and have a ripple effect over the next decades.”
Step -by -step
It may take time to build a completely new category of all stripes. This hardware startup and the elements of the medical device to boot will not be able to provide a paradigm shift in which hormones are monitored overnight.
That’s why the team is also studying a stepping stone single product (the above prototype format), which hopes to be clear for the use of prescriptions next year. IVF) and low testosterone (TRT).
The current prototype wearable contains a small needle to take a sample to detect trace of hormones.
This is a step towards hormone monitoring wearable. They ultimately hope to be tentative to the market in 2028. This can be a continuous measurement such as progesterone, estrogen and testosterone in an epilepsy liquid of the wearer. (This is a fluid that fills the space around the cells that act as an intermediate body between plasma and cells. Therefore, the biochemical compound of the blood can be detected in the epilepse.
As with CGM’s diabetes management (and in addition to other), continuous hormonal monitoring devices (or data selected by the data) can play a variant in enhancing the scientific understanding of the role of hormones in human biology.
However, Level Zero Health is also building a B2B business with the goal of selling technology to medical service providers’ networks. As a result, the founders are working on the twin product development tracks to shorten the validity period between the market and solve the gap between the big bang missions. And what is now.
Rustamova told TechCrunch, “We think we have the source of this truth we can use. “And we think there’s an immediate and short -term product we need to release here first.
“The idea is a series of hormonal monitoring… It is the future of the future. The future is the future. Because it’s because there is no friction again, you can wear it and make a consistent measurement. But today we have to enter the market in a way we do not want to change the protocol, and there is no seven -year research question about ‘try and interpret this data’, so the first device is actually similar to a finger stick device, but is also a patch do. “
Prototype wearables can be measured all day when wearing. With the goal of “immediately delivering value” for the case of use such as IVF, it is necessary to extract a series of data points and draw multiple blood to monitor women. Hormone level.
Rustamova has concluded the clinical trial and securing permits for this single -use intermittent monitoring patch next year, and pays attention to the CE mark to be sold to US regulatory agencies, FDAs and European medical care. The mayor (She says it’s not clear which one will come first).
“This year we want to show some correlation (between the levels of hormones that can be detected through blood draws and can be detected) -This is a promise to convey as a seed money. “She adds.
CTO, co -founder Irene JIA says the team’s goal can be 90%+ correlation with a patch that can be picked up compared to the hormonal level measurement through the blood draw.
Risk reward
Later, when discussing the delay between (the blood -based readings and detection through epilepsy liquid), Rustamova emphasizes the difference in the difference in medical risks between CGM and hormonal monitoring. She is very likely to be very high in the dangers of diabetics (for example, when blood sugar readings are delayed or off), but hormonal monitoring is not generally high.
“In the case of glucose, you have a fatal consequence of wrong reading or delayed, but there is a risk of a little deviation or correlation,” she says. “Obviously, we will try and correlate as much as possible, but there is this very different risk profile.” She also pointed out that the first CGM of the market is less correlated with blood levels than the current device.
The suggestion is to increase the rod correctly. Perhaps investors are crooked in a positive direction for hints about why investors want to accumulate in the early rounds of this Medtech startup.
The other is that it is not doubtful, the useful factor here is that zero -level health does not focus on women’s health problems. Men’s hormone monitoring is a key part of the initial business plan. (And most technical investors are still a man betting on solving the problem of talking about their interests.)
Level Zero Health’s pre -seed funding round was led by European VC Redalpine. HAX (SOSV), Entrepreneurship (EF) and industry experts also contributed to the round. SOSV previously accepted startups for the Deepech/Hardware Hax Accelerator program, and Rustamova was an EF alum.
In the statement, Philip Kneis, an investor of Redalpine and a member of Health Health Board, said: “We did it for blood pressure and we will do it again for hormones. Continuous hormone measurements are one of the Holy Grails of Diagnostic, and as the basic science turns into engineering, we could not be more excited to support zero health in the mission of changing hormone tracking with a new bio sensor. Personalized health care age. ”
