Woman with Signos wearable and app
Source: Signos
Health tech startup Signos announced a $20 million funding round on Wednesday, growing its foothold in the GLP-1-fueled weight loss market and expanding its partnership with medical device giant Dexcom.
Google Ventures, Dexcom and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama invested in this latest round, which includes a new distribution deal to put Signos’ subscription plans on Dexcom’s direct-to-consumer site.
“Dexcom’s investment really reflected the shared belief in the future of glucose biosensing beyond diabetes management,” CEO Sharam Fouladgar-Mercer told CNBC. “Their biosensor provides glucose data. We translate that into actual guidance.”
Signos makes an artificial intelligence-powered glucose monitoring system designed to help with healthy weight loss, the first of its kind to be cleared by the Food and Drug Administration in 2025.
It uses Dexcom’s off-the-shelf continuous glucose monitor to measure how a user’s real-time lifestyle choices can affect their health, like meal choices, sleep and stress levels. From there, the platform gives personalized recommendations to build healthier habits.
“Nobody wants to have a PhD in statistics to figure out their own body, and so we’re really helping translate these glucose insights into actual recommendations, and then the pattern recognition’s designed to support healthier habits and sustainable weight management,” Fouladgar-Mercer told CNBC.
The startup declined to comment on its valuation following the round.
The fresh funding will also go to expanding its predictive AI features, like meal scoring, where a user’s data is used to warn them about whether a specific food could spike their glucose levels before they eat it.
Fouladgar-Mercer said the real opportunity with AI is translating biology into “practical guidance people can actually use.”
“So you can take a photo of the food and the AI will detect the entity and figure out the macros and all of that, and also the activities, but really it’s how do you take that and determine how your body responds in real time to give you that feedback to help drive behavior change,” he said.
The service is meant either for those who want to complement their GLP-1 drug treatments or as a standalone weight loss system, Fouladgar-Mercer said.
Signos’ new partnership with Dexcom could bring the startup greater visibility in the booming weight loss market, as demand for pricey GLP-1 drugs like Novo Nordisk‘s Wegovy and Eli Lilly‘s Zepbound continues to skyrocket.
Nearly 74% of Americans are obese or overweight, according to government data. Estimates from JP Morgan predict that roughly 25 million Americans will be on a GLP-1 by 2030, more than double the number of patients from 2025.
While Fouladgar-Mercer said the company doesn’t share metrics around revenue or customer count, he said both revenue and user base grew tenfold over the last six months. He added that “tens of thousands” have participated in clinical studies.
“Just tracking outputs — like steps or heart rate — are fine, but if we can’t track the metabolic input and the response, then we can’t help people as effectively as we want,” Fouladgar-Mercer said.
