Exclusive: Glytec Raises $21M Round For In-hospital Glycemic Management

Glytec is developing software that aims to set the standard for insulin dosing and glycemic management in hospitals. On Monday, the company brought in a new round of $21 million in equity and debt financing.

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More than 34 million Americans today live with diabetes, while 88 million live with prediabetes and over one-third of all patients — regardless of a diabetes diagnosis — require insulin during their hospital stay, said Ed Furlong, president and CEO of Glytec, headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts. Furlong joined the company in 2019.

“Acute care is typically organized by care type and is not set up to treat diabetes across the health system,” Furlong told Crunchbase News. “They don’t often have enough endocrinologists on staff to treat everyone, and the traditional method of treating high or low blood sugar is still paper-based instead of continuous monitoring.”

Uncontrolled blood glucose often results in longer hospital stays, higher readmission rates, increased costs and greater mortality rates, he added.

The Glucommander, Glytec’s eGlycemic Management System, enables providers to track blood glucose data, detect and alert when patients are outside the target range to help get them back into range quickly and safely, as well as provide personalized insulin dosing regimens.

The Glucommander was proven to reduce low blood sugar by 99.8 percent, 30-day readmissions by between 36 percent and 68 percent and the average hospital stay by up to three days, Furlong said. In addition, by reducing the number of hospital stays, Glytec customers were able to save $20,000 per licensed bed annually.

Glytec’s new funding includes $9 million in debt financing from Silicon Valley Bank and $12 million in equity investment, led by Savitr Capital. In total, Glytec raised $65 million since it was founded in 2006 by Robby Booth and Bruce Bode, according to Furlong. He intends to deploy the capital in R&D and adding to the company’s workforce.

“We had worked together with Ed (Furlong) on two prior ventures, and knew him well,” said Laura Scott, market manager of the life sciences and health care practice at Silicon Valley Bank, in an interview. “We are passionate about finding companies that have an impact on delivery of care and improving patient lives. We consider Glytec in the class of companies making a difference. It has the proven team, great strategy and technology we are looking for.”

Meanwhile, Glytec experienced more than 40 percent growth in annual recurring revenue over the last five quarters, including early in the pandemic when investment in hospital information technology slowed, Furlong said. In the same period, the company’s sales funnel increased 10x.

Going forward, there is a huge addressable market of 6,000 hospitals in the U.S., where less than 10 percent have electronic glycemic monitors, he said.

“The market is still untapped, so we will continue to scale as we invest in the product,” Furlong said. “We are also working on deeper integration with electronic medical records, medication administration, as well as providing a seamless experience for the provider ordering the Glucommander and nurses administering it.”

Illustration: Dom Guzman