diabetes-care
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Orange Biomed Bet Its A1C Test on One Weird Fact: Sugar Makes Blood Cells Stiff
A Duke-born startup turned the stiffness of red blood cells into a pocket-size diabetes test. The science is clever; the harder experiment is getting a regulated device from a five-minute demo into millions of homes.
Apollon
Apollon is a Korean-American medtech company building MOGLU, a needle-free continuous glucose monitor that reads blood sugar through the skin using Raman spectroscopy instead of a subcutaneous filament. Founded in Seoul in 2021 by Aram Hong and researchers tied to MIT and Asan Medical Center, the company is developing a compact wearable that reported accuracy comparable to leading CGMs in early MIT clinical testing, has been granted FDA Breakthrough Device designation, and won a 2025 CES Innovation Award.
Kaleido
Kaleido is a small, discreet, customizable insulin patch pump built by Dutch medtech company ViCentra to make living with diabetes less of a burden. Designed to look and feel like a lifestyle product rather than a clinical device, Kaleido pairs with Diabeloop's self-learning algorithm and the Dexcom CGM to enable hybrid closed-loop, app-controlled insulin delivery. With more than 3,500 users in Europe and an $85M+ Series D raised in 2025, the company is scaling manufacturing of its next-generation Kaleido 2 and preparing for entry into the United States.