French medtech firm RDS has secured a €14 million ($16.6M) Series A to scale its wearable patient-monitoring patch, a move that signals a serious push into the burgeoning hospital-at-home market. The funding round was led by the French state-backed SPI fund, managed by Bpifrance, underscoring a national strategy to build domestic industrial champions in key tech sectors.
The company’s core product, MultiSense, is a CE-marked, reusable patch that continuously tracks six vital signs, including heart rate, respiratory rate, and oxygen saturation. It’s designed to untether patients from bulky hospital equipment, allowing for remote monitoring whether they’re in a different ward or back in their own homes. According to RDS, the clinically validated device is already deployed in 15 hospitals across France, Belgium, and Germany.
This fresh capital injection is earmarked for a significant industrial ramp-up. RDS plans to scale its French manufacturing operations, accelerate its commercial rollout across Europe, and begin the arduous FDA registration process, with a US market launch targeted for 2028.
Scaling up for a hospital-at-home future
The RDS funding arrives as healthcare systems globally grapple with strained capacity and rising costs. The shift toward remote patient monitoring (RPM) and shorter hospital stays, a trend supercharged by the pandemic, has created a massive opportunity for technologies like MultiSense. The global market for vital signs monitoring is pegged to hit $15 billion this year and is growing at a brisk 15% annually, according to the company.
Investors are betting that RDS can capture a significant slice of this market. "This funding gives the company the means to become a leading player in post-operative remote monitoring," said Magali Joëssel, director of the SPI fund at Bpifrance. The investment is about more than just a promising device; it’s about "funding the industrialization of innovative technologies that will bring growth and jobs to France."
With this round, RDS has raised a total of €28 million. Half of that comes from this Series A, while the other €14 million was previously secured through a mix of capital and non-dilutive financing from the French government’s France 2030 plan and other European Union research grants.
For patients and providers, the technology supports Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) protocols, which advocate for shorter hospitalizations. As Professor Jacques Marescaux, a member of RDS’ Scientific Board, noted, the patch offers a potential solution to a major clinical challenge: "faster patient discharge and a more effective monitoring of vital signs than in hospital, with considerable medical and economic benefits expected." It’s a vision of a more flexible, data-driven, and decentralized healthcare system, and RDS now has the capital to build it at scale.
