Celsium, the maker of wearable, medical-grade monitoring devices for measuring temperature, is raising capital for its expansion through private equity investment firm, Growthdeck.

Celsium’s device is an armpit-mounted temperature sensor, which connects via Bluetooth to a smart monitoring platform.

WHY IT MATTERS 

The technology is the first core temperature-monitoring wearable product to be approved by regulators in the EU and US as a medical device.

The device connects via Bluetooth to a smartphone app, which uses proprietary algorithms to give an accurate real-time reading of the body’s core temperature. In a hospital setting, multiple devices can connect at once to a central ‘dashboard’, allowing medical staff to monitor the temperatures of large numbers of patients.

This dashboard provides alerts to the care team if a patient’s core temperature rises sharply or hits a threshold for fever.

Monitoring core body temperatures is a more accurate indicator of health than the traditional spot skin thermometers that are subject to variations that give both false positive and false negative readings. 

Growthdeck says the COVID-19 outbreak has led to an acceleration in demand for Celsium’s products, with no competitor products yet having reached a similar stage of development, particularly for the smart monitoring platform.

THE LARGER CONTEXT

Meanwhile, Taiwan-founded healthcare wearable device company iWEECARE’s flagship product, Temp Pal smart thermometer, has been in use to help combat COVID-19 spread in hospitals and self-quarantine, by preventing physical contact between caregivers and patients.

Earlier this year, Integrated Health Information Systems (IHiS), the national HIT agency in Singapore, partnered with local healthcare AI startup KroniKare to pilot iThermo – an AI-powered temperature screening solution that screens and identifies those having or showing symptoms of fever. 

ON THE RECORD

Shaz Hussain, investment director at Growthdeck, said: “Celsium is uniquely placed to meet an urgent need for accurate, non-invasive, medical-grade temperature monitoring that is suddenly a top priority for both consumers and healthcare organisations.”

“Coronavirus has created disruption across the economy, but disruption means opportunity for businesses with the right product. Celsium is one of those businesses.”

Andrew Mahoney, founder and CEO of St Albans-based Celsium, said: “We’re hugely excited to be working with Growthdeck to raise this investment. Celsium has the potential to change the way the world measures temperature and this investment will allow us to scale at pace, unlocking new markets and use case ranging from at home through other areas such as healthcare, research and elite sports.”