Funding profile · Cardiac monitoring

HelpWear

Eleven years of prize money, accelerator cheques and one televised handshake. No SEC filing, no announced venture round, and a licensed device at the end of it.

$120KTotal funding across 2 rounds, as tracked by two commercial databases
$100KDragons’ Den investment for 12 percent, from all six Dragons (aired Feb 2018)
$100KJohnson & Johnson QuickFire award, combined across two awardees (Sep 2021)
0Form D notices on file with the SEC, under any spelling of the name

Data as of September 22, 2026. Company-reported figures are labeled.

Rounds at a glance

When Round Amount Investors Source
2014 Ryerson Basecamp prototype grant $1,000 Brookfield Institute, via Ryerson Founder interview
Mar 2016 MAKO Student Innovation Award Not disclosed MAKO Design, with Brookfield Institute and Ryerson Independent
Aug 2016 CNE Innovation Garage, Emerging Innovators grand prize $25,000 plus in kind services CNE; in kind from Ryerson, Futurpreneur, BDO, BHOLE IP Law, Enterprise Canada Independent
Summer 2017 Y Combinator Not disclosed Y Combinator YC data
Taped Nov 2017, aired Feb 2018 Dragons’ Den Asked $100,000 for 10 percent, took it for 12 percent All six Dragons Independent
Jun 2018 Thiel Fellowship, awarded to Andre Bertram personally $100,000 over two years Thiel Foundation Independent
2018 EO Global Student Entrepreneur Awards, second place Close to $20,000 USD Entrepreneurs’ Organization Company-stated
Sep 2021 Digital Technologies of Tomorrow QuickFire Challenge $100,000 combined with one other awardee, plus JLABS residency Johnson & Johnson Innovation Partner release
By 2023 UCeed Health Fund investment Not disclosed UCeed, managed by Innovate Calgary Partner-stated
To mid 2018 Grants and awards, cumulative More than $300,000 Not itemized Company-stated

What the filings show

SEC EDGAR · no Form D found · searched Sep 23, 2026

Filings found
None, for HelpWear, Helpwear Inc. or HeartWatch
Vehicles
No SPV or fund filing naming the company
Why
Regulation D covers securities sold into the United States; an Ontario issuer raising in Canada files nothing here
Reading
Absence of a Form D is absence of a US offering, not absence of capital

HELPWEAR INC. · Health Canada device licence 108443 · first issued Oct 24, 2022

Class
II, licence type System
Devices
HEARTWATCH and HEARTWATCH STRAP, both added Oct 24, 2022
Status
Issued and active; no end date at the refresh of Sep 22, 2026
Address of record
209 Victoria Street, Room 774, Toronto, M5B 1T8
Company status
Active in the Health Canada company table, company 148345

Helpwear Inc. · Canadian corporate record · incorporated Oct 10, 2015

Registration
CIN 947160-0, listed as active
Headcount
18 as of Aug 31, 2026, per the same commercial database; the company reports 11 to 50
Tracked funding
$120,000 across two rounds
Source type
Commercial aggregator, not a primary filing

Reading the filings

  1. The silence at the SEC is structural, not suspicious.HelpWear is an Ontario company whose named backers are Canadian programs, a Canadian television panel, a university fund and Y Combinator. No Form D appears under any spelling, and none should be expected unless it sells securities to US investors.
  2. The tracked total matches nothing that was announced.Two databases put total funding at $120,000 across two rounds. That is not the $100,000 televised deal, not the $25,000 CNE prize, and not the sum of the disclosed awards. The company’s own claim of more than $300,000 in grants and awards by mid 2018 already exceeds it.
  3. This is a prize shaped capital stack.The documented arithmetic: $1,000 seed grant, a $25,000 pitch prize, $100,000 from six Dragons, and a QuickFire award of $100,000 split two ways, so about $50,000 here. That is roughly $176,000 from competitions, plus an undisclosed Y Combinator investment, an undisclosed UCeed cheque, and $100,000 awarded to a founder personally by the Thiel Foundation. No priced venture round has ever been announced.
  4. A televised handshake is not a closed round.$100,000 for 12 percent implies a post money value of about $833,000 in late 2017. The founder told Toronto Life in May 2018 that the money came through. There is no filing anywhere that confirms it, and Dragons’ Den deals routinely fail diligence after taping.
  5. The regulatory asset is well ahead of the disclosed capital.A Class II licence since 2022, four registered trials, 191 participants enrolled and a granted US patent is more than $120,000 buys. Either there is unannounced funding, or grants, pilot revenue and a team under 20 have carried it.
  6. The officer changes left no paper trail.Bertram moved from chief executive to chairman, Scott Klein arrived from Medtronic and Abbott, and Nguyen dropped off the leadership list. In a US issuer the related persons block of a Form D would date those moves. Here the only dated evidence is a March 2025 association profile.

Commercial signals

Signal Detail Source type
Regulatory Health Canada licence 108443, Class II, issued and active. No FDA 510(k), PMA, listing or UDI record. Public record
Clinical Four registered studies, all company sponsored. 191 participants actually enrolled across three of them; a fourth is recruiting toward 300. Public record
Evidence No results posted on any study and no PubMed indexed publication as of Sep 23, 2026. Not found
Customers Paid, pre commercial pilot deployments in Canada. None named. Partner-stated
Team 11 to 50 employees reported; 18 tracked as of Aug 31, 2026. Chief executive hired from cardiology medtech. Aggregator
IP US 11,363,958 granted Jun 21, 2022, plus two published applications. Public record

What to watch

  • A first announced priced round, and a Form D if any of it is sold to US investors.
  • Named pilot customers, a price for the monitoring service, and any Canadian reimbursement listing.
  • Whether licence 108443 survives its next annual renewal in the Health Canada listing.
  • Results from NCT06164808, primary completion estimated December 31, 2026.

The HelpWear story on Healthcare DiscoveryHealthcare Discovery

Related companies

  • Zeit Medical: Also in Medical Devices. A soft EEG headband built to notice a stroke while its wearer is asleep and raise the alarm before anyone else can
  • Makani Science: Also in Medical Devices. A bandage-sized strain sensor that reads breathing off the chest and the belly
  • Revolve Surgical: Also in Medical Devices. A Toronto company building a laparoscopic robot that clamps to the operating table instead of filling the room
  • Standard Cyborg: Also in Medical Devices. A Y Combinator startup that printed shower legs for amputees, became the software prosthetists used to design sockets, then became a computer vision SDK

Sources

  1. Public recordHealth Canada MDALL licence, company and device records for HELPWEAR INC.Health Canada · queried Sep 23, 2026
  2. Public recordopenFDA 510(k), PMA, registration listing and UDI queries, all returning no matchopenFDA · Sep 23, 2026
  3. Public recordClinicalTrials.gov NCT05357716, NCT05821465, NCT06164808 and NCT07624435ClinicalTrials.gov · accessed Sep 23, 2026
  4. Public recordUS Patent 11,363,958 and applications 20200029840 and 20210345932USPTO · granted Jun 21, 2022
  5. IndependentDuo backed by all 6 Dragons, with the deal termsMAKO Design · Feb 13, 2018
  6. IndependentHelpWear pitch listing, ask of 100K for 10 percentCBC Dragons’ Den
  7. IndependentTorontonians who are shaking up the tech sectorToronto Life · May 28, 2018
  8. IndependentHelpWear taps Derek Exner, with the Thiel grant and CNE prizeBetaKit · May 13, 2019
  9. IndependentHelpWear profile: total raised, patents, QuickFire releaseCB Insights · accessed Sep 23, 2026
  10. IndependentHelpWear profile: incorporation, legal entity, headcountTracxn · accessed Sep 23, 2026
  11. CompanyIngenuity meets heart health with the HeartWatchHospital News, Andre Bertram · Jun 27, 2018
  12. PartnerHelpWear portfolio profile, UCeed investmentUCeed, University of Calgary
  13. PartnerHelpWear Inc. member profile, leadership listCanadian Medtech Alliance · Mar 3, 2025

Compiled from Health Canada, FDA, SEC, USPTO and ClinicalTrials.gov public records and published reports as of September 22, 2026. Form D notices report offerings under Regulation D; no such notice exists for this issuer, and its absence indicates no United States offering rather than no financing. Healthcare Venture Capital Fund holds no position in HelpWear. This page is not an offer to sell or a recommendation to buy any security.