Stress isn't just bad for people, it's bad for businesses too. Absenteeism, decreased productivity, lower turnover, medical costs, and accidents, among other things, are what the American Institute of Stress estimates workplace stress costs American businesses: more than $300 billion annually.
One way to measure stress is to monitor cortisol levels. Even influencers talk about it know this, manifested on Tiktok as «Cortisol Face»But to approach things scientifically, the hormone must be measured throughout the day, because it is the variation in it that matters most.
"At the end of the day, we should have the lowest levels," says CEO of Nutrix Maria Hahn. Her company's newly introduced hardware, Cortisense which measures cortisol in saliva, recently won the CES 2025 Innovation Award in the digital health category.
Providing patients with a device instead of having them go to a clinic is not only more convenient; it also allows cortisol levels to be tracked right after waking up, Hahn said.
Developed with the support of the University of Applied Sciences, North West Switzerland, Cortisense integrates with Nutrix's digital health platform, gsense which includes a digital health platform, constant glucose monitoring, AI-powered dietary management, and telemedicine.
It also connects with The initial objective of Nutrix: diabetes. While it has shifted its hardware roadmap toward Cortisense, the company’s eye is still on chronic diseases. “Cortisol is a hormone that controls many other hormones, so it plays a big role in mental health, but also metabolic health,” said the Switzerland-based entrepreneur.
This vision helped Nutrix gain support from Swiss innovation agency Innosisse, as well as private investment. The startup has raised $4 million to date, including a previously unannounced $2.5 million seed round led by Polish Impact Fund SIMPACT and Japan Deep Tech Fund OIST-Lifetime Ventures. Mayo Clinic also came on board, after meeting the team at CES 2024.
The startup is looking to raise a large Series A round to fund its expansion, but its seed round has already kick-started Cortisense’s U.S. launch. With backing from the Mayo Clinic, it plans to open offices in Silicon Valley.
Nutrix is not new to market expansion; its Gsense platform is integrated with the public insurance system in Chile, a country where it received support from the public program, Start-up Chile. In 2024, the Swiss healthtech startup also launched operations in Mexico and Peru.
What's new for Nutrix, however, is the focus on corporations, rather than to consumers. While less common in the U.S., in countries like Chile, Mexico and Peru, health screenings are part of companies’ obligation to strive for employee well-being, with the understanding that private health data remains private.
With the United States now the priority of Nutrix’s Cortisense roadmap, Hahn will have to get used to clarifying “the company will only get the aggregate data.” And while a utilitarian tone around the economic costs of workplace stress may seem off-putting to some, it can also serve as a reminder to employers that mental health is, in fact, health.
Cortisol is “also extremely important in women’s health, especially in perimenopause and menopause, but it’s also a very neglected space from a research and studies standpoint,” Hahn said. She now plans to use some of the Nutrix funding to conduct more research into these ties. “For me as a woman, that’s also very important,” she said.
