CINCINNATI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Eccrine Systems, Inc., announced today that it has raised $5.5 million in Series A Funding. The company led the round with participation and support from CincyTech Fund IV and other sources within the CincyTech local, regional and national investor community.
Eccrine Systems is developing advanced, wearable, sweat sensing systems based on innovative research and intellectual property that originated from the University of Cincinnati and the Air Force Research Labs at Wright Patterson Air Force Base. The company’s technology platform addresses a spectrum of monitoring applications including industrial toxicity, fitness-for-duty, stress management, treatment effectiveness and various medical conditions.
“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,” said Robert Beech, CEO and co-founder of Eccrine Systems. “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.”
The company has recently been awarded a $3.96 million dollar contract by the United States Air Force Research Laboratory that is focused on the development of a next generation, non-invasive sensing system for the monitoring of specific molecular biomarkers in human sweat.
The science of real-time sweat analysis is in its early stages, but recognition of its importance is rising rapidly within the world of wearables applications. Said Beech, “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.” Beech emphasizes further, “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.”
Since raising a $1.5M seed round in early 2015, Eccrine Systems, which is based in the HCDC Business Center, has grown its staff to over twenty team members.
“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,” said Mike Venerable, Managing Director of CincyTech. “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.”
About Eccrine Systems, Inc.
Eccrine Systems is a privately held company dedicated to improving human health, safety, and productivity through the innovation and development of advanced sweat sensing technologies. The Cincinnati-based company was founded in 2013 to commercialize technology and intellectual property that was exclusively licensed from the University of Cincinnati, and with the funding support of CincyTech and its network of local, regional and national investment sources. To learn more, please visit www.eccrine.com.
Trademarks
Eccrine Systems, Sweatronics, and the company logo image are registered trademarks of Eccrine Systems, Inc. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.
Safe Harbor Statement
Some of the statements made in this press release are forward-looking statements about Eccrine Systems, Inc. These forward-looking statements are based upon the company's current expectations and projections about future events and generally relate to the company’s plans, objectives and expectations for the development of its business. Although management believes that the plans and objectives reflected in or suggested by these forward-looking statements are reasonable, all forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties and actual future results may be materially different from the plans, objectives and expectations expressed in this press release.
© 2016 Eccrine Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.
