The Kaleido insulin patch pump is a compact device that can be worn on a patient’s arm or pump from their pocket. [Image courtesy of ViCentra]
The Dutch medtech company is rolling out its Kaleido automated insulin patch pump in Europe and plans to eventually bring it to the U.S.
Insulet’s Omnipod 5 tubeless patch pump is the leader in that form factor, while Medtronic, Tandem Diabetes Care and Beta Bionics make their own automated pump systems and have patch pump systems on the horizon, too.
Shortly after ViCentra closed an $85 million Series D funding round in September 2025 (followed by a $13 million extension in January 2026), Medical Design & Outsourcing spoke with ViCentra CEO Tom Arnold about what makes Kaleido different as his company looks to bring it to the hundreds of millions of people with diabetes around the world.
“It’s not like any other pump,” Arnold said. “It’s the smallest, thinnest, lightest, most precise insulin patch pump in its class, and it’s built with premium materials that make it something that patients want to wear, not have to wear.”
Arnold joined ViCentra in February 2025. He has more than 20 years of experience in medtech, including about six years in diabetes at Medtronic, where he played a pivotal role in launching the world’s first hybrid closed-loop insulin pump system.
The following has been lightly edited for space and clarity.
MDO: What makes Kaleido unique?
Arnold: “There’s a number of things. The first one is our pumping mechanism. If you look at most of the insulin pumps in this space, they’re syringe-driven pumps. Think of it like any needle or syringe that you would fill to move water around or whatever the case might be. That same concept is built into almost every insulin pump that’s out there. That has two problems. One, syringes aren’t small. They take up a decent amount of space. Two, they have a bit of what’s called a stick-slip functionality to them. Their level of precision in terms of dosing can differ a little bit.
The Kaleido insulin patch pump comes in 10 colors and is controlled with a smartphone app. [Image courtesy of ViCentra]
“There’s other companies talking about blockage detection as well. Right now in the marketplace we have a really unique blockage detection system, which is typically three to four times faster than leading pumps. We haven’t tested it against all of them, but that is a component of this system as well.”
And this is a particularly compact system, is that correct?
Arnold: “The Kaleido 2 product weighs 19 g. For comparison, the Medtronic MiniMed 780G — a wonderful device — uses a 24 g AA battery. Our device weighs less than the battery powering the market leader, and it’s 30% smaller than Omnipod 5 and and smaller than the Tandem Mobi and smaller than every other product that has come to market or is about to come to market in quite some time. That matters to patients.
“It’s also the lightest product and has the smallest profile, meaning it’s the thinnest product. When you have to choose to wear something 24/7, size and weight make a big difference, and then look and feel. This looks like a lifestyle product, like a technology product. It does not look like a medical device. For patients that have a chronic condition, a device they actually want to wear versus one that reminds them of their chronic condition is a big deal.
“Finally, I’d be remiss to not talk about the clinical elements. This is the most precise insulin pump on the market and in conjunction with the Diabeloop algorithm, it’s going to deliver really strong clinical outcomes. Then we will have the most wear flexibility of any product on the market. When you put all that together, it will have a very compelling value proposition in the U.S.”
What is the makeup of the Kaleido pump?
Arnold: “Patients receive a starter kit that comes with two pumps. These are durable pumps that last four years. Right out of the gate, we have a durable disposable model, which in Europe is very well received because from a sustainability perspective you’re throwing away much less product over time. That also allows you to get a much lower cost-of-goods-sold at scale, which from a business perspective is a big deal for us.
“You get two pumps and get to choose the colors. We have 10 colors today. Our next-generation product will have a few less, but they’re absolutely beautiful colors coming. It then comes with insulin cartridges and infusion sets, and you can choose your length of infusion set. They currently come in two lengths: 2 in. which allows you to wear the pump pretty much anywhere on the body, and 12 in., which we’ve found can be used a couple of ways. Men often use the infusion on the abdomen and keep the pump in their pants pocket. For women, because the pump is so lightweight — about 20 g — they’ll infuse in the abdomen and stick the pump in their bra without noticing it.
The Kaleido insulin patch pump worn on the arm [Image courtesy of ViCentra]
What were the biggest challenges developing this system?
Arnold: “It’s not always appreciated how complex insulin pumps are. You’re designing something that delivers a life-critical drug to be used by normal people in almost any environment you can imagine. When we first got the CE mark at the end of 2015, we identified significant learnings about the technology in the years that followed. The biggest challenge we’ve had is manufacturing, largely manufacturing of the disposables. We acquired technology from a company early on and needed to make quite a few changes to the disposables to improve manufacturability. We ended up taking it in-house to make those changes. Now we’ve optimized that design, optimized the engineering processes and the manufacturing processes so much that we’re prepared to very soon transfer those lines to a contract manufacturing organization to really scale our manufacturing.”
Read more about ViCentra’s commercial plans for the Kaleido system at Drug Delivery Business News.
