Stress isn’t simply unhealthy for you — it’s additionally unhealthy to your employer. Factoring in absenteeism, diminished productiveness, turnover, medical prices, and accidents, the non-profit American Institute of Stress estimates that office stress prices U.S. companies over $300 billion yearly.
One approach to measure stress is by monitoring cortisol ranges. Even influencers know this, with “cortisol face” turning into a trending TikTok matter. However to method issues scientifically, the hormone must be measured all through the day, as a result of it’s variation that issues essentially the most.
“By the tip of the day, we should always have the bottom ranges,” says Nutrix CEO Maria Hahn. Her firm’s newly unveiled {hardware}, CortiSense, which measures cortisol in saliva, lately gained the CES Innovation Award 2025 within the Digital Well being class.
Offering sufferers with a tool as a substitute of getting them go to a clinic isn’t simply extra handy; it additionally permits for monitoring cortisol ranges proper after waking up, Hahn advised TechCrunch.
Developed with the assist of the College of Utilized Sciences Northwestern Switzerland, CortiSense integrates with Nutrix’s digital well being platform, gSense, which features a digital well being platform, steady glucose monitoring, AI-powered dietary administration, and telemedicine.
This additionally connects with Nutrix’s preliminary focus: diabetes. Whereas it pivoted its {hardware} roadmap in direction of CortiSense, the corporate’s eye remains to be on continual illnesses. “Cortisol is a hormone that controls many different hormones, so it performs an essential position in psychological well being, but in addition metabolic well being,” the Switzerland-based entrepreneur mentioned.
This imaginative and prescient helped Nutrix achieve assist from Swiss innovation company, Innosuisse, in addition to non-public funding. The startup raised $4 million so far, together with a beforehand unannounced $2.5 million seed spherical co-led by Polish affect fund Simpact and Japan deep tech fund OIST-Lifetime Ventures. Mayo Clinic additionally got here on-board, after assembly the staff at CES 2024.
The startup is searching for to lift a big Collection A spherical to fund its growth, however its seed spherical has already kicked off the U.S. launch of CortiSense. With assist from the Mayo Clinic, it’s planning to open places of work in Silicon Valley.
Nutrix isn’t new to market growth; its gSense platform is built-in with the general public insurance coverage system in Chile, a rustic the place it acquired assist from public program, Begin-Up Chile. In 2024, the Swiss well being tech startup additionally launched operations in Mexico and Peru.
What’s new for Nutrix, nevertheless, is the pushback over a mannequin that targets firms, relatively than customers. Whereas much less widespread within the U.S., in international locations similar to Chile, Mexico, and Peru, well being screenings are a part of an employers’ obligation to try for worker wellness, with an understanding that non-public well being information stays non-public.
With the U.S. now on the prime of Nutrix’s CortiSense roadmap, Hahn should get used to clarifying “the corporate will solely get the aggregated information.” And whereas a utilitarian pitch across the financial prices of job stress could appear distasteful to some, it could additionally function a reminder to employers that psychological well being is, certainly, well being.
Cortisol is, “additionally extraordinarily essential in girls’s well being, particularly within the perimenopause and menopause, nevertheless it’s additionally an area that was very deserted from the analysis and research viewpoint,” Hahn mentioned. She now plans to make use of a few of Nutrix’s funding to conduct additional investigations into these ties. “For me as a girl, that’s additionally crucial,” she mentioned.
