Hospitals, Startups

Basis Band raises fresh round to make more trackers and publish an API

Basis Science has a new infusion of cash to clear out the backorders of its […]

Basis Science has a new infusion of cash to clear out the backorders of its Basis Band and work on version 2.0 of its tracker that includes five sensors.
Founder Nadeem Kassam said that the company closed a $11.5 million round last week, which included money from author Deepak Chopra.

Esther Dyson, DCM and Norwest Venture Partners also contributed to the round which was led by Mayfield Fund.
Chopra and Dyson are also joining the company’s board of advisors. Basis Science was one of the first healthcare transformers in StartUp Health’s program.
When the wristband tracker went on sale earlier this year, it sold out quickly at $199 per device and is now on back order.
The Band has an accelerometer, a pedometer, a heart rate sensor and a perspiration sensor on the back of the watch face. The Band measures and reports resting heart rate daily and tracks heart rate patterns throughout the day and night.

Kassam spoke with Jason Calacanis Friday at SxSW at the Startup Health BootCamp.
A user can study the data through a web app. Kassam said that the company is working on an API and an Android app would be released at SxSW.

“My team and I could not figure out how to deal with all this data so we had to open it up,” he said.
Popular Science’s review of the band called it the “only tracker worth wearing.”

Kassam was wearing his invention and took the square sensor off the watch band. Calacanis predicted a specific type of consumer would like the band.
“I think it’s beautiful because I like Star Trek, if you were anybody with style, you wouldn’t go anywhere near it,” Calacanis said.
Kassam said that his team was working to shrink the sensor and that other design options would be part of a version two.
Calacanis started the session with the comment that healthcare is second only to music in terms of carnage for founders.
“Of the 30 some companies I have funded, not one has been in health,” he said.
At the close of the session, host Shwen Gwee of PharmFresh.TV and Edelman asked him if his conversations with Kassam and Derek Flanzraich of Greatist, and Veer Gidwaney of Maxwell Health who also presented at the session, had changed his mind.
“Well two of these three companies I don’t consider health companies, exactly, and all of them are coming at this from the consumer perspective, which may be the only way to fix the system,” he said.

[Image from flickr user Dave Malkoff]

Veronica Combs

Veronica is an independent journalist and communications strategist. For more than 10 years, she has covered health and healthcare with a focus on innovation and patient engagement. Most recently she managed strategic partnerships and communications for AIR Louisville, a digital health project focused on asthma. The team recruited 7 employer partners, enrolled 1,100 participants and collected more than 250,000 data points about rescue inhaler use. Veronica has worked for startups for almost 20 years doing everything from launching blogs, newsletters and patient communities to recruiting speakers, moderating panel conversations and developing new products. You can reach her on Twitter @vmcombs.

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