Pitch Type 1 diabetes · Sweden → Europe
Domino-shaped dextrose tablets that snap into exact doses. Made for children with type 1 diabetes, and the adults who grew up with it.
Type 1 diabetes means about 180 extra health decisions every day.
Sensors and pumps now handle the inside. But when blood sugar drops, a person still has to put glucose into a mouth: often at night, often a child, sometimes two or three times in a day.
The rescue is the one part of diabetes care nobody has redesigned.
Sources: Barndiabetesfonden, Type 1 diabetes in numbers (June 2025); Diabetes UK, citing Stanford research on daily decisions.
On Swedish shelves the tablet comes in essentially one size: about 3.4 g.
Guidelines now point to smaller doses based on body weight, and smaller still for people on automated pumps. A 20 kg child on a pump is advised about 2 g. A 30 kg child on pens, about 9 g. Neither lands on a multiple of 3.4.
What happens next
Too little and the low continues. Too much and blood sugar overshoots into a high.
Doses: ISPAD 2022 (about 0.3 g/kg) and ISPED paediatric recommendations (about 0.1 g/kg on automated pumps). Rebound data: Ranjan et al., Diabetes Technology & Therapeutics, 2026. Guideline values for illustration; not medical advice.
Pure dextrose, pressed like a domino. One pip is one gram, and the score line is where it snaps.
Anyone can count it: a child, a teacher, a grandparent at 3 a.m.
The halves say how much they are. A 4 g tile gives two 2 g halves; a 2 g tile gives two 1 g halves.
The face of the 4 g tile is the logo: two dots falling, two dots rising.
Build any dose from a few pieces
A dedicated 5 g adult tablet is in development and may follow the first launch.
Playful armour: equipment-grade labelling and soft muted colours, with the chalky white tablet as the only soft thing inside.
Loop and cordClips to a bag strap or belt. Breakaway cord for the youngest.
Slide lidOne thumb, one direction. Opens shaking, in the dark, with gloves on.
WindowSee what is left at a glance.
Personal labelName, age, weight, a number to call and the dose from the child's care team, drawn in pips so anyone can count it.
QR and short linkOpens the family's own page at gludo.se: their story, in their words.
Families fill in the label from their care team's plan. Gludose never sets the dose.
Families need glucose at home, at school, in the car and at grandma's, so refills arrive in bulk, like lab stock: uncoated board in soft colours, every side labelled.
The same board and labelling in a flat pack of ten tiles, shaped like a pack of gum: it fits in a pocket and sells at the till in a pharmacy or shop. One for 4 g tiles, one for 2 g tiles.
Sweden
72,000people with type 1, of whom about 8,000 are children
Norway, Denmark, Finland
+15,600children and teenagers under 20
Europe
2.7Mpeople with type 1 (IDF Europe region)
How it makes money (estimates)
Population: Barndiabetesfonden (2025); IDF Diabetes Atlas, 11th edition. Economics are internal estimates excluding VAT, built on current Swedish dextrose prices and shipping rates, and will be replaced by supplier quotes and pilot data.
Company, supplier, shop, app diary.
100 families in Skåne, through a clinic partner.
Subscription shop, online pharmacies, clinic welcome packs.
Finland and Denmark. Smart canister, version one.
Germany and the Netherlands.
About 1,000 Swedish families a year meet a paediatric diabetes team after diagnosis. A kit in the welcome pack reaches them at the moment they are looking for answers.
Swedish parents already support each other in groups and on Instagram. We join as fellow parents, with free trial kits and open ears.
One domino in every refill box builds a full set. A fixed amount from every box goes to children's diabetes research.
Every logged treatment is a clean data point: a known number of grams, a time, a glucose value before and after. Over years that becomes the best dataset on how lows are actually treated, and the base for predictive dosing connected to sensors and pumps. It needs clinical studies and certification, roughly four to seven years. The tablets and the app are how we earn the right to build it.
Living with type 1 means explaining it again and again, when most days the goal is to forget it is there at all. Gludose is a brand for the people who live with it, and part of the job is making that explaining easier.
Every user gets a personal page that tells their story in their own words. Put the link in an email sign-off at work so colleagues understand what a day looks like. In school, a parent or teacher can send it to the class so everyone knows how a kid is doing. Example: gludo.se/elsa
The Gludose app doubles as a diary. Log a low and add as much context as you like about why it happened. Later, look back through your own history and spot your own patterns.
Gludose never calculates, recommends or predicts anything from the diary. That would need medical testing and certification. The diary is yours to read and to draw your own conclusions from.
Under 150,000 kr covers company set-up, a first batch of tablets, canisters and the pilot. No outside money needed to begin.
For custom tablet tooling, a designed canister and the Nordic launch, raised from a much stronger position.
A paediatric diabetes clinic to run the pilot with. Families to try the kit. Introductions to sensor and pump partners.