Startup Making Hydration a Vital Sign

SAN DIEGO – After almost 6 years of development, Hydrostasis’ mission to properly hydrate the elderly has set sail.

Hydrostasis recently began shipping its innovative GECA device, an innovative wrist worn hydration monitor, to customers. With the device, older adults will know exactly when and how much water they need to drink.

“Hydration is especially important for older adults because as we age, our thirst mechanisms also decline, becoming less sensitive to let us know that our body is dehydrated,” said CEO and founder Debbie Chen. Benefits of proper hydration in older adults include helping prevent kidney problems, improving memory, getting better sleep, reducing fatigue, and keeping them out of the hospital.

Innovative Hydration Monitor

Hydrostasis has partnered with San Diego-based engineering consultant Unlimit Ventures to manufacture the first iteration of the GECA watch, and it will continue to ship its first production batch through August.

The GECA watch detects water content in the skin at the wrist, utilizing four different LEDs and an extensive personalization algorithm to tailor hydration data to each individual. This optical, wearable solution to hydration monitoring allows for accurate, real-time results, allowing users to know when they are approaching dehydration.

Hydrostasis’ focus on daily, real-time use are priorities competitors in the hydration monitor space have overlooked.

“Current products are sweat based and therefore not able to detect hydration levels when users are not sweating, or have only focused on younger adults or athletes,” Chen said.

“We are focused on older adults and daily use, giving our customers a peace of mind, and building healthy hydration habits for longevity.”

User personalization is also crucial, as “everyone’s hydration needs are different. We know that it is not appropriate to tell everyone that they need to drink eight glasses of water per day, especially if you’re an older adult,” Chen said. “Many studies have shown that current pulse oximeters don’t work for older adults, folks with darker skin or higher BMI. Recently, we established a partnership with the Delaware Health Equity Coalition to do pilots to make sure our products work for under-represented groups.”

Persistent, Driven CEO

Chen was inspired to found Hydrostasis after personally experiencing dehydration as a Muay Thai fighter as well as dehydration during pregnancy. During these experiences, Chen realized that there was no tool or product at the consumer or clinical level to measure hydration levels to be certain that she was properly hydrated. With a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Tufts University, Chen began working on a device to do just that.

To do this, Hydrostasis had to build up from scratch all the “hardware, firmware, mobile application, and ML algorithms,” Chen said. “Bringing all of the innovations together into one cohesive, non-intrusive, continuous and personalized hydration monitor requires a lot of thought and collaboration from all of our teams.”

Personal stories have also motivated Chen and her team of PhDs and experienced businesspeople.

“My grandmother was my favorite person, and it feels so good to be able to guide our older adults through onboarding and that they are so thankful to speak to an actual human,” she said. “These are the stories that keep our team going, and why we are still here, fighting the uphill fight to help people create better hydration habits.”

Hydrostasis has succeeded in raising millions of dollars for its GECA watch. In total, the company has raised $4 million with $500,000 in non-dilutive grants from NIH, U.S. Airforce, UC San Diego “and other smaller grants,” Chen said.

Firms that have invested in Hydrostasis include SOSV, Crescent Ridge Partners, igniteXL, and Praxis. But raising this money was not easy. “It just feels that as a female founder, especially in deeptech, you have to accomplish more with much less capital,” Chen said.

As the GECA watches have begun to ship, Hydrostasis is looking to raise even more capital.

“We are gearing up to raise a $3 million equity round and are in due diligence with our lead investor,” Chen said.

Hydrostasis was recently named to Connect San Diego’s 2024 Cool Companies List, which aims to spur startups by uniting companies with venture capital. Speaking about Chen in particular, Connect CEO Mike Krenn said, “she just keeps on going, where so many others would have thrown in the towel. Can’t say enough good things about her and her drive.”

There are many potential avenues Hydrostasis could aim for in the future, including B2B connections with existing companies to add their hydration monitoring to upcoming watches and devices. But for now, Chen knows that the company must stay focused. “Once we’ve satisfactorily solved the issue for our older adults, we will expand to other markets.”

Looking to the Future

Hydrostasis’ long term “goal is to establish hydration status as a vital sign,” asserts Chen.

“Now that we have a product on the market, it is much easier to show B2B partners what the end product and consumer experience will be like, building bridges to large smartwatch manufacturers. We are planning to complete clinical studies so that we can prove clinical grade accuracy and become a doctor’s assistive monitoring device.”

“In the times of AI everything, we are building a human-centric tech company where we encourage our team to take care of themselves so that we can take care of our customers.

Our company values are we build trust, we are learners, and we value the whole human,” she said.

Hydrostasis
FOUNDED: 2018
CEO: Dr. Debbie Chen
HEADQUARTERS: San Diego
BUSINESS: Real-time hydration monitoring
FUNDING: $4 million
EMPLOYEES: 14
WEBSITE: https://www.hydrostasis.com
SOCIAL IMPACT: The GECA watch and accompanying app help older adults know when and how much water to drink.
NOTABLE: The GECA is currently the only optical based, real-time hydration monitor on the market.