Sensome, a company developing a revolutionary micro-sensor technology for smart medical devices out of France’s Ecole polytechnique, announced today that it has completed its €4.7m seed round to bring its first product to clinical trials. Venture capital firm Kurma Diagnostics led a syndicate with the new Paris-Saclay Seed Fund and ID Invest, joined by a group of business angels.

Sensome’s novel sensing technology can be integrated with any medical device to reliably identify biological tissues in contact with the device. The technology combines micrometric impedance sensors that communicate wirelessly outside the body and machine learning algorithms for accurate and predictive real-time analysis.

Sensome’s first product integrates its proprietary technology with a guidewire for the treatment of ischemic stroke. When a brain blood vessel is blocked by a clot, millions of brain cells die every minute. Depending on the composition of the blood clot, the choice of tool to remove the clot significantly impacts the time to reopen the artery, ranging from minutes to hours. Sensome’s connected stroke guidewire will help select the fastest device to reopen the vessel for each patient. Ischemic stroke affects over 1.5 million people across Europe and the US every year.

“This seed round allows us to prepare first-in-human testing of our neurovascular product next year and to enter the stroke space,” says Franz Bozsak, CEO of Sensome, who co-founded the company with Abdul Barakat, professor at the Hydrodynamics Laboratory at Ecole polytechnique. “The connected stroke guidewire will finally provide physicians with the information they need to reduce procedure times. This first smart product with Sensome inside will pave the way for future devices integrating our technology for the benefit of patients.”