Eccrine Systems raises $6m for sweat-sensing wearable

Medtech developer Eccrine Systems said today it raised $5.5 million in a Series A funding round to support its sweat-sensing wearable sensor.

The wearable sweat sensor aims to address a “spectrum of monitoring applications,” including industrial toxicity, fitness, stress management, treatment effectiveness and other medical conditions, the Cincinnati, Ohio-based company said.

“Sweat holds great promise as the best non-invasive source for acquiring the type of molecular data and physiological insights that the medical community has historically collected and analyzed from blood. However, the use of sweat has been limited by the lack of means to accurately capture and report its real-time contents in the context of daily life, whether during work, sleep or play. Advances in microfluidics, nanotechnology, miniaturized electronics and power management are now making it possible to engineer wearable sweat sensing systems to monitor a wide array of sweat molecules in real time,” co-founder and CEO Robert Beech said in a press release.

The funding comes on top of a $4 million contract with the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory to support the development of a next-gen, non-invasive sensing system for monitoring specific molecular biomarkers in sweat.

Eccrine Systems said the tech behind real-time sweat analysis is still in its early stages, but that recognition for the technology is “rising rapidly” within the wearable industry.

“The state of non-invasive wearables today is about where medicine was prior to the use of invasive blood tests. Heart and respiration rates, skin temperature, blood pressure, range of motion, and similar biophysical measurements were all possible back in the early 1900’s. It wasn’t until blood molecular levels could be measured accurately that the medical community was able to rapidly assess and confirm someone’s health or treatment status with a high degree of confidence. Sweat has to assume the role of blood to realize an acceptable level of confidence about data and insights derived from non-invasive applications, otherwise much of the hype about the actionable value of wearables data will remain in serious question,” CEO Beech said in prepared remarks.

The round was joined by CincyTech Fund IV and other sources within CincyTech’s local, regional and national investor community, the company said.

“Analyzing perspiration should provide more value than a sweaty t-shirt, but that’s generally the state of today’s market. Scientifically valid analysis of perspiration can inform human performance, diagnostics, drug adherence and nutrition. Eccrine is defining the future of sweat sensing in a variety of modes that seem exotic today, but will be commonplace in a few years,” CincyTech managing director Mike Venerable said in a prepared statement.

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