Hilo by Aktiia, the healthtech innovator behind a new wave of continuous blood pressure monitoring, has secured $42 million in Series B funding. Spearheaded by Raghav Gupta, the round attracted top-tier investors including Earlybird Health, Wellington Partners, Kfund, naturalX Health Ventures, redalpine, Khosla Ventures, Molten Ventures, Translink Capital, and Verve Ventures.

At the core of Hilo’s innovation is a clinical-grade wearable that captures blood pressure readings continuously - without cuffs, without manual checks, and without the typical friction that leads to patient non-compliance. Their wrist-worn optical device leverages advanced photoplethysmography (PPG) to translate tiny changes in blood flow into vital, real-time insights.

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Solving a Silent Crisis in Global Health

Hypertension is often dubbed the "silent killer" - and for good reason. It affects over 1.28 billion people worldwide, yet remains undiagnosed in nearly half of cases, according to the WHO. Conventional monitoring methods rely on episodic, often anxiety-triggered readings that fail to reflect the actual state of the patient’s health.

Hilo changes this by making every moment measurable. By collecting thousands of data points a day, their technology builds a highly personalized cardiovascular profile, which helps detect patterns long before a health event occurs.

And that’s where the deeper insight for founders emerges.

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What the New Capital Will Fuel

With the $42 million raise, Hilo plans to:

• Secure FDA clearance to enter the U.S. healthcare system
  
• Expand into Asia-Pacific markets, where hypertension is rising fastest
  
• Strengthen its AI and machine learning models to enable predictive analytics
  
• Build out integration layers for EHR systems, telemedicine platforms, and payer networks
  

In parallel, the company aims to publish additional peer-reviewed studies to cement its position as a leader in evidence-based digital health.

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Don’t Just Measure - Reframe the Metric

Hilo didn’t just miniaturize a blood pressure cuff. They redesigned the mental model of what blood pressure monitoring is. Rather than treating it as a one-off reading, they reframed it as a continuum.

This distinction is subtle - but strategic.

Founders take note: true innovation happens when you stop optimizing tools and start challenging the assumptions behind the tools.
Hilo realized the problem wasn't inaccurate devices - it was the outdated idea that one reading in a sterile setting could capture a fluctuating, emotion-driven physiological metric. They didn’t just make it easier to measure blood pressure; they made it make sense in a 21st-century lifestyle.

In healthtech and beyond, this lesson applies:
The next category leaders won’t just build better instruments - they’ll recontextualize the measurement. In doing so, they become indispensable - not just more convenient.

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Market Conditions Are Ripe for a Shift

The timing couldn’t be better. The remote patient monitoring market is forecast to exceed $175 billion by 2027, fueled by the rise of chronic diseases and growing demand for at-home solutions. Meanwhile, wearable medical devices are growing at over 25% CAGR, thanks to increasing healthcare digitization and an aging global population.

On the cost side, hypertension contributes to over $130 billion in direct healthcare spending annually in the U.S. alone. That makes passive monitoring not just a health upgrade - but an economic necessity.

Hilo is building at the intersection of all three forces: clinical urgency, payer demand, and tech feasibility.

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Funding to Power Global Reach and Precision Medicine

With $42 million secured, Hilo is now positioned to:

• Expand globally, especially into U.S. and Asian healthcare markets
  
• Deepen its AI-driven risk modeling engine, built on real-time data aggregation
  
• Launch new B2B partnerships in insurance, telemedicine, and employer wellness
  
• Grow a team of experts in regulatory affairs, machine learning, and preventive care
  

The company also plans to integrate with EHR systems and build APIs that allow third-party health platforms to stream real-time blood pressure analytics directly into care pathways.

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Why This Isn’t Just Another Wearable

Unlike many consumer health devices that prioritize step counts and sleep tracking, Hilo is focused on clinical relevance first. It’s already CE-marked in Europe, and with U.S. FDA submissions underway, it's poised to cross over from wellness gadget to reimbursable medical device.

This shift is pivotal.

As more payers and providers look to reduce chronic care costs, data-driven preventive interventions will become the gold standard. Hilo is already in talks with hospitals and health systems eager to incorporate their device into hypertension management protocols, post-operative care, and even digital clinical trials.

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What’s Next for Hilo by Aktiia

The coming year will see Hilo accelerate toward full-scale commercialization. Key milestones include:

• FDA clearance and U.S. distribution
  
• Strategic payer partnerships for remote patient monitoring reimbursement
  
• The rollout of a Lightweight SDK for integration with other health platforms
  

Long-term, the company envisions a world where blood pressure is no longer a reactive number, but a living, breathing metric - measured passively, interpreted intelligently, and acted on proactively.