HealthRally, a San Francisco-based startup that uses crowd-sourced financial incentives for fitness motivation, has raised $400,000 from prominent angel investors, according to a report at TechCrunch. Those investors include Esther Dyson, CEO of EDventure Holdings as well as Richard Sass, Ty Danco, Isy Goldwasser, and Jeff Thiel.

HealthRally combines financial incentives and social networking by creating a fundraising crowd platform similar to the website Kickstarter, which enables micro-investments for various causes and projects. Here's how HealthRally works: Users post their health goals, called Rallys, which might include losing weight or quitting smoking, and friends, colleagues, family or others donate money to motivate users to complete them. A checkpoint system allows users to see incremental progress towards their goals, and checkpoint milestones can be shared with donators. The site will launch a public beta by the end of the year, but is currently in private, invitation-only testing.

Dyson wrote about her excitement at mHealth's potential last year in a column for the Huffington Post: "A new industry is coming into being: one that makes money by selling what's good for you," she wrote, and hinted at why she chooses to invest in social-minded start-ups: "Self-tracking and the associated obsession with one's own health may sound frivolous and inconsequential, but it is social [and] emotional factors, not rational risk assessment, that determine so much of our behavior." In March, she was among the investors to contributed to the $2.35M in HealthTap, a startup that also leverages social and game dynamics. Dyson also helped to bring Voxiva's Text4Baby to Russia.

HealthRally's advisory panel includes Paul Zak, Director of The Center for Neuroeconomic Studies at Claremont University, Tom Valente of USC's Keck School of Medicine, Healthiest You ex-president Denise Thomas, and SocialText Chairman and Co-founder Ross Mayfield.

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Read the TechCrunch article here.