A developer of wearable glucose sensing is getting a boost from one of the established players in diabetes care, with Ascensia Diabetes Care leading a $36 million Series B round in Sava Technologies, the London startup said Friday.
The financing comes with a strategic partnership granting Ascensia exclusive rights to commercialize and distribute the product, starting in Europe. Ascensia, whose base is in Basel, Switzerland, and whose parent is Tokyo-based PHC Holdings, sells blood glucose meters, test strips and lancets. It called its stake a strategic equity investment and pointed to longer-term potential in Sava’s microsensor technology for monitoring beyond glucose.
Sava’s device monitors glucose in the interstitial fluid just below the skin, the same approach rival continuous glucose monitors take. What sets it apart, the company says, is a filament roughly ten times shorter than most devices on sale use, meaning less skin disruption. Sava wants the sensor cleared for non-adjunctive use so patients could make insulin dosing decisions without a fingerstick to confirm readings.
Money from the round is earmarked for manufacturing scale-up and commercial readiness ahead of a first product launch. A pivotal trial is due to start this year, and the company aims to launch in Europe within two years of earning a CE mark. To date, Sava has brought in $68 million. Simplyhealth Ventures, JamJar Investments, Balderton Capital, Norrsken VC and Pentland Ventures also took part.
Sava puts CGM use at roughly 12 million people, a sliver of the global adult diabetes population. Choice, in its view, has trailed demand. “The market is growing,” Sava said, yet with only two manufacturers at the helm, distributors, clinicians and patients find demand outstripping choice. Senseonics, a CGM maker Ascensia worked with before, agreed earlier to a distribution deal, and its sensors stay implanted up to a year.
