Neuchatel-based Aktiia, a blood pressure intelligence platform, announced an oversubscribed €37 million Series B funding round, bringing the total financing to above €88 million, as well as rebranding to Hilo.
The round was co-led by Earlybird Health and Wellington Partners, with new investors Kfund and naturalX Health Ventures, and participation from existing investors redalpine, Khosla Ventures, Molten Ventures, Translink Capital and Verve Ventures.
Raghav “Rags” Gupta, CEO of Hilo, commented: “This funding round is a testament to the confidence our investors have in Hilo’s groundbreaking technology and our mission to manage the world’s blood pressure via more frequent, convenient and accurate measurements. With billions worldwide suffering from hypertension, only 20% of whom are in control of their blood pressure, the need for innovative, accessible blood pressure monitoring solutions has never been greater. Our rebrand to Hilo represents more than just a name change, it’s a commitment to empowering users around the world with smarter tools to optimise their health. We are grateful to early Aktiia customers for their support and to our investors, new and existing, for their faith.”
Aktiia, now trading under Hilo, was established in 2018 to transform how blood pressure is measured and managed. By integrating advanced AI algorithms with datasets, Hilo’s cuffless blood pressure monitoring (CBPM) products claim to offer convenient, valuable reports to give both individuals and healthcare professionals a useful picture of their blood pressure.
The company’s foundation model for blood pressure has reportedly been trained on billions of optical signals and hundreds of millions of readings across more than 120,000 users. The company’s multidisciplinary team has contributed to over 120 peer-reviewed publications and holds more than 35 patents.
The latest investment builds on a period of significant momentum for the company during which it has achieved several milestones, including securing CE marking for its mobile phone camera blood pressure monitoring technology, securing regulatory approvals in Canada, Australia and Saudi Arabia, achieving 76% compounded annual revenue growth, and completing a pivotal clinical trial ahead of its U.S. FDA application submission.
This Series B funding will fuel continued product innovation, expansion into new markets and the build out of its blood pressure intelligence platform to support enterprise use cases.
Christoph Massner, Principal at Earlybird Health, who will join Hilo’s Board of Directors, commented: “Hilo stands at the intersection of medical-grade precision and consumer-centric accessibility. By building on a validated medical device platform and an intuitive, user-friendly design, they bridge the gap between clinical reliability and everyday usability. It’s a rare combination that empowers users to take meaningful control of their health with minimal effort. This is especially critical given the enormous medical need: uncontrolled high blood pressure remains one of the leading risk factors for death worldwide.”
Alongside this funding, Aktiia is introducing its new brand identity: Hilo – a rebrand which reflects the company’s global ambition to make cuffless, clinically validated blood pressure monitoring universally accessible and effortless.
The company has also developed a foundation Machine Learning model specifically designed for blood pressure. The model has been trained on “tens of billions of optical signals from real-world users and further refined with hundreds of millions of calibration points“.
Johannes Fischer, Managing Partner at Wellington Partners, commented: “We are excited to co-lead this financing and to be backing Hilo’s innovative technology, which provides groundbreaking advancements to the billions of people with elevated blood pressure today. We believe that real-time and continuous access to blood pressure information will change the way we think about the monitoring and management of one of the most common risk factors to human health.”