CARI Health Raises $2.3M in Seed Round to Advance Remote Medication Monitoring
Medical technology startup secures funding to begin in-patient clinical studies and prepare for regulatory pathway with FDA for first-ever wearable real-time medication monitor
Digital health startup CARI Health has closed an oversubscribed $2.3 million seed round that will help it bring the world’s first wearable real-time medication monitor to market.
Funding was led by the San Diego Angel Conference (SDAC), with four additional investment funds participating, including NuFund Venture Group, Cove Fund, Chemical Angel Fund, Medical Devices of Tomorrow, and several individual angel investors.
The funding will go toward completing first in-patient human clinical studies for CARI Health’s wearable remote medication monitoring device, expanding its intellectual property portfolio, and preparing for the regulatory pathway with the Food and Drug Administration.
“San Diego Angel Conference Fund IV is excited to lead CARI Health’s successful seed round in 2022,” said Mysty Rusk, founder of the SDAC and Executive Director of USD's Free Enterprise Institute. “CARI Health is poised to have a tremendous impact on the nation’s opioid crisis, which currently impacts over 3 million Americans, drains more than a trillion dollars annually from the U.S. economy, and destroys the lives of many families.”
While CARI Health’s solution can detect a number of medications, the first application will be to enable patients being treated with medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) to prove treatment compliance remotely, without frequent clinic visits.
“We are passionate about the potential to make an impact and build something bigger than ourselves,” says CARI Health Founder and CEO Patrik Schmidle. “Wearable remote monitoring would be life-changing for hundreds of thousands of MOUD patients, who under today’s standard of care have to show up almost daily for clinic visits, especially in the beginning of treatment.”
Schmidle originally launched CARI Health via non-dilutive SBIR grant funding, after he witnessed a close relative’s struggle with opioids. The emergence of fentanyl has further exacerbated the crisis and increased demand for new solutions.
By participating in programs like the Qualcomm Institute Innovation Space, Institute for the Global Entrepreneur MedTech Accelerator program at University of California San Diego, and MedTech Innovator program, the world’s largest MedTech accelerator, CARI Health has benefitted from best-in-class mentorship and advice. It was also selected as one of San Diego’s 2022 Cool Companies and is part of EvoNexus, which has a 1% admittance rate.
The company anticipates raising its next round of financing in the second half of 2023 to support the regulatory clearance process and subsequent commercial product launch. “The fact that our seed round was oversubscribed despite a challenging fundraising environment is an enthusiastic validation of the technology and the need for our solution,” Schmidle said.
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