The Misfit Shine raised $846,000 on Indiegogo in January.
Like the Misfit Shine before it, Scanadu proved this week that in digital health, the combination of a hip, hyped product and a crowdfunding platform can lead to impressive results. The company raised their goal of $100,000 in just two hours, and they're now up to more than three times that.
Of course, not all digital and mobile health projects on Indiegogo or Kickstarter (which has quietly begun to go back on its former prohibition against health projects) achieve that level of success. Two months ago, we did a round-up of five mobile health projects on Indiegogo, and we've covered a number of crowdfunded companies in the meantime.
Four of the five companies in our March roundup surpassed their funding goals. The Amiigo fitness bracelet ended up raising $580,689, more than six times its $90,000 goal. The activity tracker surprised its backers by adding a previously unannounced sleep tracker shortly after the conclusion of the campaign. Breathometer, the smartphone breathalyzer, raised $138,377, more than five times its $25,000 goal. LifeBEAM's SMART cycling helmet, an activity and heart rate tracker built into a bike helmet, raised $64,676 of its $50,000 goal. Silverline, the company refurbishing smartphones for seniors, just made their goal of $50,000, with a final total of $54,001.
The only company from our roundup that failed to meet its goal was MoodTune, a mobile game for treating depression, which raised only $1,955 out of a goal of $152,000. As did Lively, an eldercare monitoring system whose Kickstarter campaign we covered last month: they were only able to raise $15,177 of their $100,000 goal.
Other campaigns MobiHealthNews has written up recently are still ongoing, but promising. Goggle-based swim tracker Instabeat is already overfunded, with $43,823 raised out of a $35,000 goal and 25 days to go. The company's stretch goal is $55,000. The Kinsa smart thermometer, which aims to create a realtime health map, is at $44,528 out of its $50,000 with 24 days left and the iPhone Placebo effect app is at $20,300 out of $50,000 with 31 days to go.
We're always hearing about new mobile and digital health crowdfunding projects at MobiHealthNews. Read on for a slideshow of seven projects either currently seeking funds or recently concluded.
UPDATE: Make that eight! An astute commenter reminded us about HAPIFork, the app-connected fork that vibrates when the user eats too quickly. HAPIFork was met with some skepticism at CES in January and was mocked by Stephen Colbert shortly thereafter, but the crowd has definitely spoken: With a week to go, HAPILabs has raised $125,383 out of an original $100,000 goal.
In addition, a look at HAPILabs' website suggests the fork is just the beginning: the company intends to introduce an activity tracker and a wristworn heart monitor.
[vimeo]http://www.vimeo.com/62463482[/vimeo]
One theme that seems to come up when it comes to crowdfunded sports trackers is niche trackers -- Instabeat is a wearable sensor for swimmers, the SMART helmet is a wearable sensor for cyclists. LIT, a clip-on or wristworn activity tracker, wants to be the tracker for extreme sports. The company recently completed its campaign, raising $50,594, just over its $50,000 goal.
In addition to running and walking, LIT provides specific metrics for surfing, skateboarding, snowboarding, motorcross, BMX, and skiing. It returns appropriate metrics like air time and maximum g-force. The tracker is water-resistant, shock-resistant, and rugged, and the app allows users to set up competitions for themselves and others, share results on social media, and collect points that can be used to enhance other functions.
Raised: $50,594
Goal: $50,000
Days remaining: 0
