auryx raises $2M to transform everyday earbuds into continuous health monitors

The round is led by Celero Ventures, with participation from EWOR, Cambridge Enterprise Ventures, Vento, PurposeTech, and a syndicate of other institutional and angel investors. The technology is built on a decade of research conducted at the University of Cambridge at the intersection of machine learning and audio diagnostics.

auryx has raised $2M in pre-seed funding to build a platform that turns everyday devices, such as earbuds, into continuous health monitors using sound. By analysing acoustic signals from the heart, lungs, and blood flow, the company enables existing microphones in consumer hardware to capture physiological data in real time — without requiring additional sensors or changes in user behaviour.

The company was founded by researchers from the University of Cambridge who had been working on different aspects of the same problem: how to extract clinically relevant information from sound. CEO Erika Bondareva focused on cardiovascular diagnostics from audio signals, while CTO Kayla-Jade Butkow explored how in-ear microphones could be used to measure vital signs. Together with Professor Cecilia Mascolo, who spent over a decade building the scientific foundation for this field, they formed auryx to bring this technology beyond the lab and into everyday use. Professor Mascolo, Chief Scientific Officer, is a Professor of Mobile Systems at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

Most consumer health devices today rely on optical sensors that use light to detect blood flow beneath the skin — an approach that is susceptible to motion artefacts, particularly at the wrist where most wearables sit. The ear, by contrast, is relatively stable during everyday activity, enabling cleaner and more reliable signal capture. Because auryx uses acoustic rather than optical sensing, it can extract a far broader range of physiological signals: not just heart rate, but respiratory rate, cardiac output, blood pressure, and more.

auryx is initially focused on the earbud market, where devices are already worn by hundreds of millions of people, with plans to expand to other microphone-equipped devices and health applications. Because the technology can be enabled on devices people already use every day, it integrates health monitoring seamlessly into existing routines without requiring additional hardware.

The $2M investment will be used to advance hardware integration and model development, deepen commercial partnerships, and accelerate team growth. The company is actively hiring across engineering and commercial roles, targeting individuals interested in building a platform technology designed to scale across billions of devices. The round is led by Celero Ventures, with participation from EWOR, Cambridge Enterprise Ventures, Vento, PurposeTech, and additional institutional and angel investors.

Nick Cochran, General Partner & Co-founder, Celero Ventures commented:

“auryx caught our attention immediately: Cambridge research, proven science, and a software-only approach that turns the microphones already inside noise-cancelling earbuds into continuous health sensors. No new hardware. No behaviour change. Just a fundamentally smarter use of devices hundreds of millions of people already wear.”

Quinten Selhorst, Partner, EWOR said:

“Erika stood out to us early through true out of distribution achievement in her career and deep sector insight. Over time, what became even more evident is her unique blend of raw horsepower and emotional intelligence. If anyone can bring this new category of technology to market and scale it, it’s Erika and her team.”

Mahesh Shankar Santiapillai, Investment Manager, Cambridge Enterprise said:

“auryx takes a novel approach to health sensing, using sound to capture physiological signals in a space that remains largely unexplored in consumer devices. This creates significant whitespace and is a real opportunity for the future of health monitoring.”

Find out more about auryx