Clair Labs, a remote multiparameter patient monitor company, has raised $9 million in seed funding in order to continue developing its contact-free technology for use in both hospitals and at-home health care.

In addition to SleepScore Ventures and Maniv Mobility, Vasuki was one of the companies that participated in the seed round, which was led by 10D Capital.

Adi Berenson and Ran Margolin met while working at Apple, where they were both members of the company's product incubation group. The two eventually formed the company. In 2018, they made the decision to establish their own company in Israel.

Because of the aging population and the push by hospitals to discharge low-acuity patients to their homes, there was an influx of high-acuity patients into the hospitals themselves, which led to the creation of Clair Labs. Patients are generally provided with medical devices such as patient monitors during their stay at home, and the pair believed that by combining their knowledge of consumer technology from Apple with health care, they could make those devices more user-friendly and something that patients would be willing to use at home.

As a result of this research, a contact-free biomarker sensing system for continuous patient monitoring of vital signs such as heart rate, respiration, air flow, and body temperature was developed. Using this information, Clair Labs is developing medical devices and systems for use in the field of healthcare.

One of the challenges of this space is that it is broad, and there are many companies taking a horizontal approach, according to Berenson, who spoke with Crunchbase News about the subject. We believe that identifying existing workflows and deploying our technology patient monitor is the most effective approach to taking care of patients. Because you have to work within the framework of existing clinical, regulatory, and reimbursement practices, the process is slightly more difficult, but it is effective when all of the pieces are in place.

The company is concentrating its efforts to begin with on sleep medicine, specifically on sleep apnea, and acute and post-acute care facilities, as well as other related areas.

Biomarker sensing, according to Berenson, is a more cost-effective method of digitally monitoring patients around the clock than traditional methods of monitoring patients. Other behavioral markers such as sleep patterns and distress are also tracked by the system, according to the patient, as well as changes in the patient's position, such as an intent to rise. In turn, machine-learning algorithms scrutinize the data and make recommendations to health-care professionals based on what they have learned.

Clinical trials for the technology are currently being conducted in Israel, and the company intends to begin pilot projects with sleep centers and hospitals in the United States in the near future, if all goes well.

Clair Labs is in the pre-revenue stage of development and is managed by a small team of ten employees who act as portable patient monitor for the company's patients. It will use the funds to expand its research and development center in Tel Aviv and to prepare to open a U. S. office the following year, which will be primarily responsible for providing customer support in North America as well as overseeing marketing and sales efforts in that region of the world.

According to Berenson, "we needed some time to incubate," but with this round of funding, "we're moving from incubation to prototyping and the clinical trials phase."The trials are progressing smoothly, and the system is performing exactly as it was designed to do. Among our goals for the next two years are the completion of our trials patient monitor in Israel before moving on to the United States for trials, obtaining FDA clearance, and beginning to sell our product before moving on to the next round of funding.

One of 10D's other areas of focus is digital health, according to managing partner Rotem Eldar, who stated that there is a lot of interest in Clair Labs because of its experienced team, which is bringing technology and know-how to a space where there is a lot of potential for growth.