In recent years, we have seen many new wearables that monitor key health characteristics successfully reach the market. Epicore Biosystems is one of the leaders in this field. Epicore has developed biosensors that measure sweat and dehydration, which can be  used to monitor the health and performance of athletes, pilots or military personnel, industrial employees and more.

Epicore was founded in 2017 as a spinout company from Northwestern University’s Center for Bio-Integrated Electronics; among Epicore’s products are the Gx Sweat Patch, commercialized in partnership with PepsiCo and Gatorade; the Discovery Patch Sweat Collection System (FDA Class I device); and the Connected Hydration wearable and cloud platform designed for industrial workers.

Since completing its Series A more than three years ago, Epicore has grown its customer base by 24 times with leading multinational companies in energy, manufacturing, construction, and aviation.  With an eye on continuing its growth, Epicore recently announced that it has raised $26 million in Series B funding with Steele Foundation for Hope (SFFH).

Dr. Roozbeh Ghaffari, co-founder and CEO of Epicore, said that Steele Foundation for Hope has seen how well Epicore has successfully scaled its solutions in wellness and worker safety.

Steele’s CEO Joe Exner stated, “Epicore has developed a non-invasive biowearable technology and successfully scaled its solutions in wellness and worker safety. Their advanced capabilities enable real-time health screening and management for conditions like malnutrition, dehydration, and chronic kidney disease. We invest in people as much as we invest in technology, and we’re confident that the Epicore team has the leadership, dedication, and expertise to take their impact to the next level.” 

The funding will help Epicore drive global adoption of its personalized hydration and cloud analytics platform and expand into new biomarker targets relevant to kidney health, women’s health, malnutrition, and environmental toxin exposures. Dr. Ghaffari noted that Epicore’s sweat-sensing systems are being used worldwide.

“Epicore’s sweat-sensing wearable solutions have been deployed across the United States in markets grappling with hydration, heat stress, and extreme heat conditions,” Dr. Ghaffari said. “In summer 2024, Epicore began deployments across Japan, the Middle East, and Australia, in areas experiencing the full impact of extreme heat and climate change. Approximately 40% of Epicore’s deployments are currently outside of the U.S. with the Middle East, Japan, and Australia leading the way. It is also in regions in South America and Africa that are experiencing a heat crisis.”

Dr. Ghaffari reported that Epicore has amassed large data sets for workers across a few key industrial sectors using its Connected Hydration platform.

“The captured data shows significant behavior shifts and work/rest schedule optimization strategies being employed by workers and employers to mitigate the effects of heat risks,” Dr. Ghaffari said. “Hydration and health management tools strive for these types of quantitative outcomes. It’s exciting to see these outcome results take shape within a few weeks/months of deploying Connected Hydration.”
  
Epicore is currently working on new R&D developments, including the Gatorade Fuel Gauge.

“We recently announced a new device that measures fuel (muscle glycogen depletion) alongside Gatorade at this year’s Super Bowl in New Orleans,” Dr. Ghaffari said. “The Fuel Gauge patch operates similarly to the Gx Sweat Patch but provides information about energy needs complementary to hydration. We have efforts underway exploring new biomarkers that are focused on micronutrients (calcium, iron, zinc, vitamin C) and metabolic health (urea and creatinine).”

Dr. Ghaffari observed that with the effects of heat and preventative measures being paramount in the workplace and daily living, Epicore is well positioned to offer solutions that make impact in ways that expand well beyond heart rate, step counting, and sleep tracking.

“Given the catastrophic impact of climate change on health and chronic conditions, we anticipate international expansion of the Connected Hydration platform as well as the introduction of new biomarkers (for micronutrients, metabolic health, women’s health), which will enable large scale adoption in the US and abroad, particularly in developing countries, which need access to robust and low-cost screening and health management tools the most,” Dr. Ghaffari concluded.