Ascensia leads $36m Series B in London glucose sensor maker Sava and takes European rights

Sava Technologies, a London company developing a wearable glucose sensor, has raised a $36 million Series B round led by Ascensia Diabetes Care, and has handed Ascensia exclusive rights to sell and distribute the device, beginning in Europe ¹. The deal was reported on 12 October 2026 ¹.

The round and the partnership

The round takes Sava's total funding to $68 million, according to the company ¹. Balderton Capital, Norrsken VC, Simplyhealth Ventures, JamJar Investments and Pentland Ventures also took part ¹. Ascensia, which is based in Basel and is a subsidiary of Tokyo's PHC Holdings, said it had made a strategic equity investment alongside the commercial agreement ¹.

Sava will spend the money on scaling up manufacturing and on preparing to sell its first product ¹. Its sensor works like other continuous glucose monitors (CGMs), reading glucose in the interstitial fluid under the skin. The company says its microsensors are about 10 times shorter than the filament in most devices on the market today, which it argues means less disruption to the skin ¹.

Sava plans to begin the trial meant to support approval this year and wants a CE mark within the next two years, after which it would launch in Europe ¹. It is seeking approval for non-adjunctive use, so that people could base insulin doses on the sensor without routine fingerstick checks ¹. Ascensia sees the microsensor platform as having long-term potential for monitoring markers other than glucose ¹.

What it means for the market

The deal is a bet on a two-supplier market opening up. Abbott and Dexcom dominate CGMs today ¹. Sava puts current CGM use at about 12 million people, a fraction of the adults with diabetes worldwide ¹. "The market is growing, but with just two manufacturers leading it, demand is outpacing choice for distributors, clinicians and patients," Sava said in a statement ¹.

For Ascensia, best known for blood glucose meters, test strips and lancets, the partnership is a second attempt to secure a CGM to sell ¹. It previously distributed sensors from Senseonics, whose implantable devices last up to a year, but Senseonics has since agreed to take its sales and marketing back in-house ¹. Taking equity as well as distribution rights gives Ascensia a stake in the product rather than only a sales contract.

For European health systems and diabetes services that buy CGMs, a third mainstream supplier with a non-adjunctive label would add competition in a category where two companies set the terms. That outcome depends on that trial and on CE marking, neither of which has happened yet ¹. The report gives no price, no target markets within Europe and no detail of the distribution terms.

Caveats

The sensor is still in development. The claims about sensor length and skin disruption are Sava's own, and no clinical performance data are reported ¹. The approval trial has not started, and the company's own timetable puts a CE mark up to two years away ¹.