Hypertension health-tech firm Aktiia today announced a $17.5M Series A round of funding for its revolutionary blood pressure monitoring solution. The company’s automated blood pressure monitoring system enables stress-free reading round the clock, offering the potential to transform the diagnosis and treatment of hypertension. The new investment has been earmarked to accelerate adoption of the technology in the UK’s NHS and health systems across Europe.
Since its launch earlier this year, Aktiia has gained tens of thousands of users, who on average check their blood pressure data over sixteen times a week, with an average of 150 weekly readings performed by the device automatically in the background. The data is then visualized in a free companion application; with a simple click, a digital summary can be easily shared with a physician or family member.
In contrast, the average hypertensive patient currently measures their blood pressure only once per week due to the inconvenience and discomfort associated with a traditional cuff. Combined with white coat hypertension, masked hypertension, and other common issues with in-office diagnosis, this sporadic at-home monitoring can lead to poor management and delays in optimising treatment.
“I believe we are only scratching the surface of the possible applications for the long-term 24/7 blood pressure data that Aktiia is uniquely capable of providing to physicians,” stated Professor Melvin Lobo, NHS Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine and Director of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital Blood Pressure Clinic. “This is an indisputable game changer in enabling a better understanding of our patients’ blood pressure patterns and how to treat them on a personalized basis.”
Clinical Validation for 24-7 Blood Pressure Monitoring
In addition to endorsement by leading clinicians in hypertension management, Aktiia is now also an official partner of the International Society of Hypertension.
Its huge potential was further underlined this week when leading peer-reviewed scientific journal Nature Scientific Reports published Aktiia’s clinical trial, which validated the optical bracelet in different body positions for the persistent monitoring of blood pressure, cementing Aktiia as a solution for the real-life phenotyping of patients according to individual blood pressure pattern.
As night-time blood pressure measurements are the strongest predictor of cardiovascular risk, and Aktiia is the only easy 24/7 solution that enables these measurements without cuff inflation, this is an incredibly exciting moment for hypertension diagnostics.