People with chronic kidney disease or those at risk of heart failure are greatly affected by potassium imbalance in the body. These can even be life-threatening. While wearable glucose monitors are now commonplace and have transformed the lives of diabetes patients, potassium monitoring is in its infancy, as it is difficult to do. Now startups are emerging to address the problem.
Proton Intelligence is a Canada-based startup developing a continuous potassium monitoring product. It has now closed a $6.95 million seed round led by SOSV. Clinical trials are underway for the product, which is expected to hit the market in 2025.
Proton is developing a small device that will be inserted just under the skin to monitor potassium levels. This would be linked to a smartphone app so patients could monitor their potassium levels and receive notifications if their levels drift outside safe limits, based on lifestyle choices such as diet or medication.
A clinical panel will provide a snapshot of a patient's potassium trends, and care teams will be able to use the data to fine-tune therapies.
The company was co-founded by CEO Sahan Ranamukhaarachchi (based in Vancouver, Canada) and CSO Victor Cadarso (based in Melbourne).
The two founded the startup after working on wearable biosensors as researchers in Switzerland 10 years ago. Ranamukhaarachchi went on to found a skin-based drug delivery startup (Microdermics), while Cadarso became a professor in micro- and nano-sensors at Monash University in Melbourne. Proton has a commercial-focused headquarters in Canada and a wholly-owned R&D-focused subsidiary in Melbourne, Australia.
Ranamukhaarachchi told TechCrunch that the team conducted over 100 in-depth interviews with care teams to research their product. “These highlighted the devastating consequences of 'flying blind' when managing potassium levels, because delays in monitoring often lead to preventable hospitalisations, discontinuation of therapies or even sudden cardiac death,” he said.
He described how patients talked about “a constant fear of potassium imbalance, questions about whether eating a single banana or missing a blood test” could affect their health or even endanger their lives.
The problem is real. About 10% of the world's population is affected by chronic kidney disease, and thousands die each year because they lack access to affordable treatments.
Proton competes with a number of other emerging firms in this sector.
AliveCor assesses potassium levels indirectly by detecting cardiac activity (it has raised $154.3 million to date). Alio monitors potassium in dialysis patients (raised $46 million). Renalyse out of Spain measures potassium through finger prick blood samples (has raised €1 million). There are, of course, several others.
That said, Proton's founders claim its solution will be more scalable: “No other technology currently offers this level of usability, accuracy and clinical impact,” said Ranamukhaarachchi.
In a statement, Mohan S. Iyer, general partner at SOSV, said: “We are proud to be the first institutional investor in Proton Intelligence … and are excited to continue to support them as they move into clinical validation. “
The seed round also saw participation from We Venture Capital, Tenmile, LongeVC, 15th Rock, Exor and Trampoline Venture Partners.
