Pulse and Blood Pressure Measurement via Smartphone Camera

The ERGO ScaleHub welcomes Lifelight as a new accelerator member! This UK-based startup's innovative app makes it easy to measure pulse and blood pressure using a smartphone camera. This new benchmark in digital healthcare is already available live for our end customers in the DKV Seguros app. //radar has asked the founder of Lifelight – Laurence Pearce – how his vision for a user-friendly health monitoring solution is helping to transform healthcare for all of us.

Hi Laurence, could you briefly introduce Lifelight and explain your mission?

Lifelight is a UK health technology company on a mission to make blood pressure monitoring as simple and accessible as checking your phone. Our core product is an SDK that enables any smartphone camera to measure pulse rate, respiratory rate, and blood pressure contactlessly, in under 40 seconds, with no wearable or cuff required.

Millions of people are living with undetected hypertension or cardiovascular risk simply because monitoring has always been inconvenient, clinic-dependent, or requires dedicated hardware. By embedding clinical-grade measurement into apps people already use, whether that's a health insurer's app, a telehealth platform, or a pharmacy portal, we remove that friction entirely.

Lifelight is a CE-marked Class IIa medical device under the EU MDR, which means we meet the same regulatory bar as traditional measurement devices, just without the hardware.

You are already online in the DKV Spain app. How did the matchmaking happen?

Our relationship with DKV Seguros began through their "Health4Good" challenge, an open innovation competition seeking digital health solutions that could genuinely improve the lives of their policyholders. We applied, pitched, and ultimately won the challenge in 2024, which opened the door to a structured integration process with their digital health team.

The journey from challenge winner to live integration involved extensive technical due diligence, regulatory review, and close collaboration with DKV's product and innovation teams, including colleagues focused on their corporate and outpatient channels. We've been live in the DKV Seguros app since January 2026, and policyholders can now access a Lifelight-powered measurement flow directly within their existing health app. No download, no separate device. It's embedded seamlessly into the experience they already have.

What unique technologies are behind the Lifelight app, and how do they differ from existing solutions?

Lifelight is built on remote photoplethysmography (rPPG), a technique that detects the subtle changes in skin colour caused by blood flow, using nothing more than a standard smartphone camera and our proprietary signal processing algorithms. We've spent years refining this across a wide range of skin tones, lighting conditions, and device types to ensure consistent, reliable performance in real-world settings.

What sets us apart isn't just the technology, it's the regulatory standing. Being CE-marked as a Class IIa medical device means our accuracy has been independently validated to clinical standards. This is a meaningful distinction in a market where many wellness apps claim health measurement without the regulatory rigour to back it up.

On interoperability: Lifelight integrates via SDK, meaning the measurement capability sits inside a partner's own app rather than requiring users to switch tools. The data generated can be passed through to EHR systems, insurance platforms, or population health dashboards depending on the partner's architecture. We're built to fit into existing workflows, not replace them.

What role does the ERGO ScaleHub play in your growth strategy?

Germany is a key strategic market for us, and the ERGO ScaleHub gives us something that's genuinely hard to shortcut: credible proximity to the ecosystem. Being an accelerator member signals that we've been evaluated and endorsed by one of Europe's leading insurance groups, which opens conversations that might otherwise take years to initiate.

Beyond the brand association, the ScaleHub offers us practical support in understanding how to navigate the German market, including the regulatory environment, the corporate approval cycles, and the cultural expectations around trust and compliance. We've already had invaluable introductions through the network, including our connection with InsurLab Germany, which is helping us access a broad community of health-focused insurers.

As for Germany specifically, yes, we are actively exploring establishing a presence there. Düsseldorf is a strong candidate given the concentration of health and insurance sector activity in the region, and being part of the ERGO ScaleHub community makes that a more natural next step. We see Germany as a long-term home, not just a market to enter and exit.

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Follow the links below to find further interviews with ERGO ScaleHub start-ups such as chunkx, CamCom, rhyno, Eye-Able and Realytix Zero.

Does your solution …

… fit well within the ERGO Group’s value chain? Are you looking to scale up within a major insurance company? You can find more information on how to apply and about our corporate accelerator programme, ERGO ScaleHub, here: scalehub.ergo.com!