UK medical device startup SAVA exits stealth mode with €7.4M Seed funding from Balderton, others

London-based Sava, a medical device company developing a wearable biosensor platform, announced on Friday that it has secured $8M (approximately €7.4M) in a Seed funding round led by Balderton Capital and Exor Ventures.

This funding round brings the total raised by the London-based startup to $13M (approximately €12.1 M) from leading VC firms, angel investors, the European Union, and the UK Government (through Innovate UK).

The company will use the funds to expand its team, design its next-generation product line with high-throughput manufacturing capability, and demonstrate the platform’s clinical performance. 

SAVA: Developing an innovative wearable biosensor platform 

Founded by Renato Circi and Rafael Michali, bioengineers from Imperial College London, SAVA has developed a microsensing device to detect molecules in the interstitial fluid, just under the skin.

This smart, connected wearable patch has been designed to streamline this data and deliver it directly to a user’s phone.  

Renato Circi, co-founder, of SAVA, says, “At SAVA we are tackling preventable illness by building a new operating system for health monitoring. Our microsensor will revolutionise healthcare by making world-leading monitoring technology available to all. With this capital, we can accelerate our goal of creating a new paradigm for healthcare – preventative, personalised, and painless.”

The company’s microsensor is focused on glucose monitoring for people with diabetes, which is projected to impact 1 in 8 adults, approximately 783 million people, by 2045.

People with diabetes rely on accurate glucose monitoring technologies to adequately manage their condition. This has seen a growing number of health institutions globally make CGMs a default for diabetes care.

People with diabetes rely on accurate glucose monitoring technologies for proper management. Health institutions are increasingly making Continuous Glucose Monitors (CGMs) a standard for diabetes care. 

The UK’s NHS plans to provide CGMs to all individuals with Type I diabetes by 2025.

The startup recently gained approval from the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to go ahead with clinical trials on patients with diabetes, which will help Sava validate its breakthrough technology on a larger scale. 

The MHRA validation process is one of the most stringent processes worldwide, assessing the safety and performance of the device, as well as the design of the upcoming clinical investigation.

Rafael Michali, co-founder of SAVA says, “SAVA’s mission is to transform healthcare from a curative to a preventative system, by empowering people to take control of their health through effortless access to real-time health insights. The current healthcare system cannot meet this demand and SAVA will bridge this gap by providing the foundational architecture of a new biosensing ecosystem.”

SAVA’s microsensor will not only offer pain-free, real-time insights for users but will do so at a much more affordable, accessible price, with an upcoming clinical study scheduled to start with world-leading investigators from the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge.  

The investor

Balderton Capital is a multistage venture firm with more than two decades of experience supporting Europe’s best founders from Seed to IPO. 

The VC has both early and growth funds and invests across the technology sector, with a proven track record backing fintech, B2B SaaS, digital health, mobility, gaming, and marketplace companies.

Previous investments include Darktrace, Depop, Flywire, Kobalt, MySQL, Nutmeg, Peakon, Recorded Future, Talend, and THG.

Balderton’s current portfolio includes Aircall, Beauty Pie, Contentful, Dream Games, GoCardless, JOKR, Lendable, Matillon, Merama, Revolut, Tibber, Vestiaire Collective, Voi, Wayve and Zoe. 

James Wise, Partner, Balderton says, “This could be the defining product in personal health monitoring in the coming decade and an essential tool for patients and clinicians in diagnosing and treating many chronic diseases as well. Renato and Rafael have a compelling user-centric vision to revolutionise chronic disease management and preventative care, and the credibility and knowledge to execute in this vital area.”  

Exor Ventures is the early-stage investment arm of Exor N.V. The company invests in early-stage companies from Seed to Series B, across healthcare, mobility, and SaaS/AI.

Over the last 6 years, the company has invested in leading companies including Mistral AI, Via, Brex, Qonto, Alan, Neuralink, and Iambic Therapeutics.

“SAVA’s unique approach and novel technology underline its potential to become a foundation of a new healthcare system. It offers a platform that addresses the needs of both patients and healthcare systems and which will allow other companies to build upon,” says Noam Ohana and Ileana Pirozzi, of Exor Ventures.