Stress isn’t simply dangerous for you — it’s additionally dangerous in your employer. Factoring in absenteeism, diminished productiveness, turnover, medical prices, and accidents, the nonprofit 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” changing 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 probably the most.
“By the end of the day, we should have the lowest levels,” says Nutrix CEO Maria Hahn. Her firm’s newly unveiled {hardware}, cortiSense, which measures cortisol in saliva, just lately received the CES Innovation Award 2025 within the Digital Health 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 informed 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 towards cortiSense, the corporate’s eye remains to be on continual ailments. “Cortisol is a hormone that controls many other hormones, so it plays an important role in mental health, but also metabolic health,” the Switzerland-based entrepreneur stated.
This imaginative and prescient helped Nutrix acquire assist from Swiss innovation company, Innosuisse, in addition to non-public funding. The startup raised $4 million up to now, together with a beforehand unannounced $2.5 million seed spherical co-led by Polish influence fund Simpact and Japan deep tech fund OIST-Lifetime Ventures. Mayo Clinic additionally got here on board, after assembly the group at CES 2024.
The startup is looking for to lift a big Sequence A spherical to fund its enlargement, 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 workplaces in Silicon Valley.
Nutrix isn’t new to market enlargement; its gSense platform is built-in with the general public insurance coverage system in Chile, a rustic the place it obtained 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 companies, reasonably than shoppers. Whereas much less frequent within the U.S., in international locations equivalent to Chile, Mexico, and Peru, well being screenings are a part of an employers’ obligation to attempt for worker wellness, with an understanding that non-public well being knowledge stays non-public.
With the U.S. now on the high of Nutrix’s cortiSense roadmap, Hahn should get used to clarifying “the company will only get the aggregated data.” And whereas a utilitarian pitch across the financial prices of job stress could seem distasteful to some, it might additionally function a reminder to employers that psychological well being is, certainly, well being.
Cortisol is, “also extremely important in women’s health, especially in the perimenopause and menopause, but it’s also a space that was very abandoned from the research and studies point of view,” Hahn stated. She now plans to make use of a few of Nutrix’s funding to conduct additional investigations into these ties. “For me as a woman, that’s also very important,” she stated.
