Diabeloop, a company based in Isère, has designed a connected device that mimics the functioning of the pancreas to improve the management of type 1 diabetes. On June 2, it announced a €70 million Series C financing round led by LBO France to accelerate its international deployment. Innovacom and Japan’s Terumo Corporation participated in the round, joining the company’s historical shareholders: CERITD, CEMAG invest, Kreaxi, Supernova Invest, AGIR A DOM, Crédit Agricole, Odyssée Venture, UI Investissement (Sofimac) and Promontoires.

Co-founded in 2015 by Erik Huneker, a polytechnic engineer and Guillaume Charpentier, a diabetologist, Diabeloop is based in Grenoble and currently has 160 employees.

Patients suffering from diabetes must manage their own glucose levels as well as the administration of their insulin, monitor their diet and physical activity, and manage their stress… Diabeloop’s mission is to relieve this constant mental burden. Its technologies are based on AI to automate and personalize blood glucose management.

DBLG1 System, Diabeloop’s first automated insulin delivery (AID) medical device, and DBL-hu, its solution for the management of highly unstable type 1 diabetes, are both CE-marked and in the process of being commercially deployed in Europe.

For DBLG1, the patient is equipped with a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) and an insulin pump, both associated with a terminal containing the self-learning DBLG1 algorithm designed by Diabeloop. This AI then analyzes the data in real time and calculates the insulin dose to be administered. This medical device already equips 10,000 people and is reimbursed by the social security system. 500,000 potential patients in France (suffering from type 1 or type 2 insulin-dependent diabetes) could benefit from it.

Erik Huneker, founder and CEO of Diabeloop states:

“Being able to bring our solutions to thousands of patients since 2021 and seeing their enthusiasm is what we all work hard for at Diabeloop. The success of the teams but especially the great opportunities ahead were recognized today at this fundraising.”

A €70 million fundraising round

This fundraising was led by a new investor, LBO France. The venture capital division of the private equity firm is a European leader in e-health and supports young companies with ambitious projects that aim to go international.

Valery Huot, Partner, Head of Venture at LBO France, said:

“Diabeloop’s teams have developed a unique data-driven solution that has the potential to revolutionize the daily lives of millions of diabetic patients by removing most of their mental burden and dramatically improving the control of their disease. We are excited to become a shareholder to help the company become a global leader in closed-loop solutions for the treatment of diabetes.”

Terumo Corporation, a medical device company, also participated in the round. Following an initial partnership in 2020, Terumo Corporation has extended its agreement for a global strategy partnership with Diabeloop in 2021.

Hikaru Samejima, president of Terumo’s Medical Care Solutions business, said:

“We are very pleased that Diabeloop has passed this important milestone with flying colors and that the international opportunities continue to grow. We are committed with Diabeloop to help provide personalized, patient-centric solutions for all stakeholders.”

Innovacom, an investment company that supports major French and European digital, industrial, environmental and societal transformations, joins LBO France and Terumo Corporation as a new investor.

Encouraged by the commercial development of Diabeloop’s first solutions and the potential of its disruptive innovations to conquer a market of 10 million patients in the medium term, the previous investors CERITD, CEMAG invest, Kreaxi, Supernova Invest, AGIR A DOM, Crédit Agricole, Odyssée Venture, UI Investissement (Sofimac) and Promontoires have all joined them. In addition, Bpifrance and the historical banking pool support Diabeloop via a loan financing.

This investment will be used to improve the first version of DBLG1, to continue R&D to develop this solution with pens and new insulin pumps, to follow up on marketing in Europe and to address new markets, notably in the USA, Japan and Korea.

Catherine Dunand, President of the Board of Directors of Diabeloop,

“We are grateful for the confidence shown by our historical investors and proud of the new industrial and financial shareholders who are joining us. I have full confidence in the commitment and talent of Diabeloop’s teams to continue and expand our approach to innovation and added value for patients and thus become a leader and trusted partner in this very demanding diabetes market.”

Translated from Diabeloop, MedTech spécialisée dans le diabète, annonce une levée de fonds de série C de 70 millions d’euros