People with chronic kidney disease or those at risk of heart failure are greatly affected by potassium imbalances in the body. These can even be life-threatening. While wearable glucose monitors are now commonplace and have transformed the lives of diabetes patients, potassium monitoring is in its infancy, as it’s hard to do. Now startups are emerging to address the problem. 

Proton Intelligence is a Canada-based startup developing a continuous potassium monitoring product. It has now closed a $6.95 million seed round led by SOSV. Clinical trials are underway for the product, which is due to launch in 2025.

Proton is developing a small device that would be inserted just below the skin in order to monitor potassium levels. This would connect with a smartphone app so that patients can monitor their potassium levels and get notifications if their levels move out of a safe range, based on lifestyle choices like diet or medication.

A clinician dashboard will provide a view of a patient’s potassium trends, and care teams will be able to use the data to fine-tune therapies.

The company was co-founded by CEO Sahan Ranamukhaarachchi (based in Vancouver, Canada) and CSO Victor Cadarso (based in Melbourne).