Biolinq raised $100M for a minimally invasive sensor. Nine other startups are racing toward a fully non-invasive one. No single technology has won yet.
Continuous glucose monitoring already works well enough to be a multi-billion-dollar category. The race happening underneath that success is about removing the last needle, and it's still wide open.
A crowded field, several very different approaches, no clear winner
Biolinq, a San Diego-based company developing a wearable biosensor that measures glucose just beneath the skin's surface without a traditional inserted sensor, secured a $100M round, according to Crunchbase News, the same month VitalConnect raised an equally sized round for wearable cardiac monitoring patches.
For the fully non-invasive category, a New Market Pitch comparison identifies nine credible competitors, Photonic View Technology, RSP Systems, Liom, HAGAR, Jingce Medical, BOYDSense, DiaMonTech, Bobang Fangzhou, and Afon Technology, using methods ranging from Raman spectroscopy to radiofrequency waves and breath analysis, deliberately excluding microneedle-based approaches like Biolinq's, since those still technically enter the skin.
Photonic View Technology's calibration-free study is the largest and most methodologically convincing in the non-invasive field so far, even though rival HAGAR reported a lower headline error rate, a reminder that the smallest number in a press release isn't always the most credible one.
Accuracy and manufacturability are pulling in different directions
Raman spectroscopy has emerged as the leading scientific approach among the top three non-invasive contenders, but the optics involved remain difficult to shrink and manufacture at consumer scale, according to the same comparison. That tension, the most scientifically promising method is also the hardest one to actually ship as a mass-market wearable, is the central unsolved problem in this entire category, and it's why incumbent players like Abbott's FreeStyle Libre, which still requires a subcutaneous sensor but eliminated fingerstick calibration, remain the practical standard nearly a decade after non-invasive alternatives first started being seriously funded.
Whether regulatory approval in China creates real-world pressure on Western developers
Watch whether Jingce Medical and Bobang Fangzhou's already-approved products in China, despite their accuracy limitations, create competitive pressure on Western developers to bring a workable, if imperfect, non-invasive product to market faster rather than continuing to chase a fully validated, clinical-grade solution. A supplementary tool that ships now may end up shaping consumer expectations well before a more accurate but slower-to-market competitor arrives.
