Nutromics banks A$7.5m to make its ‘lab-on-a-patch’ device in Australia

Melbourne medtech startup Nutromics has raised A$7.5 million in an acceleration round, taking total funding to about A$60 million.

Nutromics is developing a wearable “lab-on-a-patch” device that uses DNA biosensors and microneedles to capture continuous, real-time molecular data.

“Our world first clinical study, completed in 2024, showed successful results”, said Nutromics CEO and co-founder Peter Vranes. “We’re now conducting ICU trials, a global first for this class of wearable diagnostics.

“We’ve significantly de-risked our first product, and this latest raise reflects growing investor confidence in our execution.”

Nutromics is planning a state-of-the-art facility — ideally in Australia — that it says could create more than 100 high-skilled jobs and produce up to US$1.5 billion in annual exports, with location contingent on public and private support.

“Australia is uniquely positioned to lead in advanced medical device development and export,” said Hitesh Mehta, COO and co-founder of Nutromics. “We attract elite talent, our clinical trial ecosystem is unrivalled, and several life-changing technologies have been born here.”

MTPConnect chief executive Stuart Dignam argues Australia should back domestic scale-up in medtech rather than let advanced manufacturing go offshore.

“Australia can’t afford to treat advanced manufacturing as secondary to discovery,” he said.

“Nutromics is a promising MedTech company emerging from Australia’s R&D pipeline with the potential to scale into global markets from here.

“We have lost too many companies that were built on Australian science but scaled offshore. Backing this facility now is an opportunity where public and industry co-investment can unlock significant economic, clinical, and strategic value and help move our life sciences sector from innovation to industry.”

The company’s governance draws from Australia’s medtech royalty. Former Cochlear CEO and ResMed director Dr Chris Roberts AO chairs the Nutromics board, bringing deep US commercialisation experience to the scale-up phase.

Nutromics is now looking to commercialise its device’s ability to target therapeutic drug monitoring for vancomycin, a hard-to-dose antibiotic widely used in critical care.

Beyond its own clinical pathway, Nutromics says it’s working with pharmaceutical companies to supply research-use-only wearables to support drug development — a route the startup expects will generate initial revenue while the regulated product advances.

Dexcom Ventures led the Nutromics US$14 million (A$20.5m) round in 2022, and the startup was included in LaunchVic’s inaugural 30×30 cohort designed to groom potential unicorns by 2030.