Socrates Health Solutions has gone to Indiegogo to crowdfund $125,000 for its noninvasive glucose meter technology, the Companion, by Nov. 12. The healthcare startup has Dallas roots as part of the Health Wildcatters incubator. The campaign will help push the device through an FDA 510(k) clearance path.
Though Socrates was founded only in March this year, CEO Scott Smith has high hopes for Socrates. Like many other noninvasive glucometers, the company uses spectroscopy. As light is passed through the ear the company’s proprietary technology–licensed from a NASA scientist–converts the light to a frequency then works with a software algorithm to get a reading.
This doesn’t sound too exciting until you hear the results–which, Smith said, only take about 2.5 seconds to get.
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“We’re cautiously optimistic. We absolutely do have a plan in place and we also cheer our competitors. There’s definitely room in this space for five or six noninvasive glucometers because the market is so large,” he said. Socrates is currently raising a $6 million Series A round, which includes a combination of strategic investors and more traditional healthcare venture capital firms, Smith said.
“One of the most famous quotes Socrates is known for saying is: The one thing that I know is that I know nothing,” Smith said. His father, the diabetic patient who inspired him to work with painfree glucose meter technology, also inspired the company name. “In addition, my father was a big philosophy geek and linguistics professor and sort of liked to humble me with a lot of these quotes.”
Though Smith was unable to comment on the price point for the device, if the Indiegogo campaign is any indicator for early adopters, it may be around $500. That’s the lowest donor level that promises a device once the company wins FDA clearance.
“All we’re comfortable saying right now is consumers will pay a fraction of the cost they pay today monitoring their blood glucose,” Smith said. “We would not be here without a passion to take pain out of healthcare. We would not be here without a passion to take cost out of the healthcare system.”
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The timeline for the startup is short and fast. According to the Indiegogo page, the young company has plans to make its FDA submittal for the Companion this time next year.
For more on the race to get an approved noninvasive glucose meter to the market, click here.
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