This company is building the world’s first real-time hormone monitor

Hormones don't just run the show — they are the show. They dictate your sleep, your stress, your energy, even how sharp your mind feels on a Tuesday morning. But for most people, tracking them has been like chasing ghosts — expensive, patchy, and painfully slow. Montréal-based Eli Health wants to change that. And now, with $17 million CAD freshly raised in Series A funding, the company's ready to bring its award-winning hormone-monitoring tech to the masses.

"We raised this funding to accelerate access to our technology and get it into the hands of people at scale," says CEO Marina Pavlovic Rivas — who co-founded the startup with CTO Thomas Cortina back in 2019. It's a big moment not just for Eli Health, but for women's healthtech in Canada — where capital has been scarce and ambitions often stifled.

How does it work?

Eli's breakthrough tool is called the Hormometer. Think of it like a spit-powered thermometer that lives in your bathroom drawer instead of a lab. Here's the gist:

• Users place a single-use cartridge in their mouth to collect a saliva sample.
• That sample is then read by a mobile app, which delivers results in minutes.
• The app doesn't just give you numbers — it offers personalized suggestions based on your hormonal data.

Right now, the tech is available in beta for cortisol (the stress hormone), with a waitlist open for progesterone, the hormone deeply tied to fertility and reproductive health. The cortisol version is marketed as a general wellness product; the progesterone one, meanwhile, is FDA-registered and on track for Health Canada approval later this year.

And the cost? It's about $8 a test if you commit to a year, with flexible plans for those who'd rather take things slow.

Why does it matter?

Let's not sugarcoat it — hormone health has long been overlooked, particularly in women. "Hormonal health is rapidly emerging as one of the most important frontiers in personal wellness," says Mona Minhas, a partner at BDC Capital's Thrive Venture Fund, which led the round. "Eli Health recognized this shift early."

The truth is, your hormones are the silent conductors behind your:

• Sleep patterns
• Mental sharpness
• Metabolism
• Immune response
• Physical performance

Yet, as Rivas points out, hormone testing has been "too expensive, sporadic, and slow to offer the insight people need." By shrinking the lab into a handheld device and tapping into everyday routines — saliva over coffee, anyone? — Eli is aiming to make hormone checks as normal as brushing your teeth.

The context

Eli Health isn't just selling a product. It's building what Rivas calls "long-term resilience." That means years of R&D, patented biochemistry, custom hardware, and in-house manufacturing — a smart hedge against global supply chain hiccups.

The startup now boasts about CA$28 million in total funding, with earlier seed rounds in 2021 and 2023. And this latest raise? According to Rivas, it's the largest ever for a women's health-focused tech startup in Canadian history.

The money comes from a mix of new and existing backers:

• New: Accelia Capital, Telus Global Ventures, Rocana Ventures, Swizzle Ventures, Nextblue (Japan), IKJ Capital (Brazil)
• Returning: Muse Capital, Foreground Capital, Real Ventures, Leva Capital, Garage Capital

Despite buzz around at-home hormone kits, some experts remain skeptical, warning that they could muddy the waters rather than clarify them. But Eli is betting that its blend of science, design, and data will silence the critics.

"This round signals that it's possible — and necessary — to build transformative health technology from the ground up in Canada," says Rivas. "We didn't follow a playbook... we built it ourselves."

And that, in a world where health tech often treats women like an afterthought, might be the most revolutionary part of all.