PNOE plans an eight-minute, self-serve metabolic test for gyms

Why it matters

PNOE is trying to move metabolic testing from staffed facilities to self-serve use. The launch tests whether simplifying the hardware can widen access without sacrificing the reliability that makes breath analysis useful.

PNOE co-founder and CEO Apostolos Atsalakis plans to put the company's breath test in customers' hands on October 1st, with a redesigned mask that PNOE says can measure metabolic markers in about eight minutes without a trained operator. The TechCrunch report describes the launch as a bid to make the testing available in gyms and fitness centers, where the current setup has required staff.

The launch brings Atsalakis back to the problem that started PNOE: turning a complex measurement into something people can use outside a specialized lab. He began developing the idea during doctoral work on sensing technologies at Cambridge, according to PNOE's account of its founding. In a 2026 interview with Endeavor Greece, Atsalakis said he built an early prototype, left his PhD, and started the company with childhood friend and co-founder Panos Papadiamantis. He described the original ambition as giving people more detailed information about their bodies than wearables could provide.

The operator is the product constraint

PNOE's mask measures oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide in exhaled breath. The company says its software uses those readings to estimate VO2 max, resting metabolic rate, metabolic flexibility, and the balance between fat and carbohydrate use. PNOE says it tracks 23 biomarkers; that figure describes the company's product claim, not independent confirmation of every metric in self-administered testing.

For the new version, a customer puts on the mask, presses a button, sits down, and breathes, Atsalakis told TechCrunch. The electronics detach from the silicone mask and straps, a design intended to let a gym reuse the hardware while providing individual masks to customers. That setup could reduce the staffing burden per test and make the device easier for fitness businesses to offer as a service.

That is a change in distribution as much as in industrial design. PNOE has sold its existing analyzer to professional settings, with TechCrunch naming Equinox, Four Seasons, Red Bull, the NBA, Mount Sinai Health System, and Restore Hyper Wellness among its customers. Those relationships show that PNOE has found institutional buyers; the self-serve version tests whether the same buyers can turn a specialized assessment into a repeatable consumer experience. The company has also identified pharmacies as a possible future channel, though gyms and fitness centers are the initial target.

Atsalakis told TechCrunch that the redesigned device would make the process as simple as wearing the mask and pressing a button. The usability promise is straightforward. The harder operational test is whether customers can fit and use the mask consistently enough to produce useful readings without a trained operator correcting setup or guiding the session.

A wellness claim still needs validation

PNOE positions the product as a wellness tool, not an FDA-cleared medical diagnostic, and says it does not provide medical recommendations. The distinction sets a boundary on how customers should interpret its results: the company is selling metabolic measurements and fitness guidance, not a diagnosis.

The available independent evidence is narrower than PNOE's full product pitch. A peer-reviewed study examined healthy adults during controlled treadmill walking. That supports a limited assessment of the technology; it does not by itself establish the accuracy of unsupervised use across different populations or validate all 23 biomarkers. The October launch will put that gap into practical focus, since the product's commercial premise depends on users producing reliable results without professional supervision.

PNOE says it recently closed an $11 million financing round and has raised about $22 million in total. Publicly named backers include Fifty Years and Google Maps co-founder Lars Rasmussen; the round's lead investor, valuation, and complete participant list have not been identified in the available reporting. The capital gives PNOE room to push its existing hardware-and-software business into a broader point of access, while leaving the central commercial question intact: how many gyms will make this a regular service rather than a novelty test?

Atsalakis's bet has been consistent since the Cambridge prototype: breath analysis can deliver useful metabolic information, and simpler equipment can widen access to it. PNOE 2.0 takes the next step by removing the trained operator from the session. Whether the device becomes a routine gym-floor tool will depend on both the ease of use the company promises and the quality of measurements customers can obtain on their own.