Crowdfunding is alive and well in mobile health. Just a few months after Scanadu's record-breaking presale, a number of mobile and digital health companies continue to turn to Indiegogo and Kickstarter to fund projects. Over the last few months, MobiHealthNews has written about Emotiv, Beddit, uCheck, and Eclipse.
EEG-tracking headset Emotiv still has three days left in its campaign, but the company has already raised more than 10 times its funding goal and created and met several stretch goals in the form of additional sensors. Bed-based sleep sensor Beddit also surpassed its goal, with $288,000 raised so far of an $80,000 goal -- with 20 more days to go.
On the other hand, uChek, the urinalysis app which was hoping to use its crowdfunding campaign as part of a path to FDA clearance, didn't do nearly so well, falling short of its $42,000 goal with only $15,000 at the campaign's conclusion. Similarly, Eclipse, the digital breast exam device, has only raised $4,000 of a $650,000 goal, although the project still has 20 days to go.
Here's six more crowdfunding projects that are still under way.
BreathAcoustics is a new kind of wearable health tracker, a Bluetooth headset that lets a user listen to music and make phone calls, but also tracks health metrics -- including using the headset microphone to measure a user's breath patterns. The headset also contains optical sensors that can return data about heart rate and pulse oximetry. Finally, the headset contains environmental sensors that return data about altitude, location, and barometric pressure, all displayed on the user's smartphone.
BreathResearch, the company behind the campaign, is partnered with HeartZones USA to create apps for the device for a number of use cases: stress relief, athletic training, weight loss, and sleep. The campaign is part of the company's entry for the Philips Innovation Fellows competition and the campaign is being co-supported by Health Tech Hatch, a health-specific crowdfunding platform. With 48 days to go in its Indiegogo campaign, BreathAcoustics is $13,000 into a $30,000 goal.
Benecure is a platform from an Illinois-based team of engineers and scientists working on a three-tiered project to reduce heart disease. The first tier is an app and online community aimed at helping users avoid the behaviors that can lead to heart disease, like smoking, unhealthy eating, and drinking too much. The app focuses on helping users manage nutrition, stress, and fitness. The team is also building a smartphone-connected chest strap to provide early warning of a cardiac event, although this will not be available via the campaign. The third step is to launch the app and chest strap in a pilot project to help free community clinics in Illinois, which Indiegogo pledges will help fund.
Benecure is also an entrant in the Philips Innovation Fellows contest. The team is supported by an advisory board, which includes veterans of Medtronic, 3M, and Accenture as well as former advisors at the NIH and FDA. With 19 days to go, the company has only raised $861 of its $50,000 goal.
Hexoskin is another company working on building wearable fitness sensors into clothing. The form factor is a machine washable shirt, with the bulk of the electronics contained in a box that fits in the shirt's pocket. Sensors measure activity, heart rate, ECG, and breathing. The shirt is also designed to track those metrics during sleep. The user can access the companion app on iOS and Android via Bluetooth, but the company is seeking designers to open up Hexoskin to other platforms including smartwatches, Google Glass, and the Microsoft Kinect.
Olympic athletes and Canadian astronauts, among others, are already beta testing the shirt. The technology won't come cheap, however -- the company is looking at a $400 price tag. Hexoskin has raised $44,000 so far on Indiegogo out of a $100,000 goal. There are 37 days left in the campaign.
Over on Kickstarter, which appears to have loosened its restrictions on health-related products, Rock Health graduate BitGym is crowdfunding a new software project. BitGym makes mobile software for smartphones and tablets that display virtual runs or tools while the user works out on a treadmill, exercise bike, or elliptical. BitGym doesn't connect to the exercise machine but instead gauges the user's speed using the tablet's front-facing camera, so it can be used on any workout machine.
The company is launching with 24 different virtual tour options from partner Virtual Active, as well as a multiplayer mode that lets users virtually work out with faraway friends and family. The software will run on Android and iOS devices, as well as on Apple TV. With 9 days left in its campaign, BitGym is $24,000 into a $30,000 goal.
Wahoo RFLKT Smart Bike Computer and ANT+ Bridge
Kickstarter is a somewhat unexpected choice for an established company like Wahoo, but the company says it turned to crowdfunding because their product has an unclear level of demand. Wahoo already created the RFLKT iPhone-connected cycling computer back in 2010. But because Apple has now turned to Bluetooth Smart for connectivity, the ANT+ protocol that the old computer used no longer connects to newer devices. Wahoo is crowdfunding for a new version of the RFLKT which will include a bridge, transforming the ANT+ signal into Bluetooth Smart.
What does this mean for backers and customers? A cycling computer that can talk to the iPhone, allowing cyclists to automatically upload cycling data to their fitness apps, as well as to control their music from their cycling computer. The device supports data uploads to Strava, Training Peaks, MapMyRide, Garmin Connect, Runkeeper, and Ride with GPS. Wahoo currently has $62,000 pledged of a $100,000 goal.
FurtherFit is a response to the often-heard refrain that fitness devices are great, but they produce more data than people can use. The product will be a website that combines data from a variety of quantified self devices into "a rich story about your personal health and fitness performance." At launch, FurtherFit will take data from Fitbit, Withings, and Garmin products. In the future, the company plans to add support for Polar, Nike Fuel, Timex, iHealth and Jawbone devices as well.
With less than a day left, the campaign is not very close to its goal.The company has raised less than $2,000 of a $25,000 goal.
