Scanadu, the mobile health device maker that wants to cover all the bases of the quantified self, has raised $10.5 in a Series A just a few months after breaking Indiegogo records with a $1.6 million fundraise, according to a company statement.
Relay Ventures led the round of funding with participation from Tony Hsieh’s VegasTechFund, and Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang’s Ame Cloud Ventures. Other investors that participated in the round include Broe Group, Mindful Investors and Redmile Group.
The company’s tricorder, Scanadu Scout, works with a smartphone to measure users’ heart rate, blood pressure, respiratory rate, EKG and core body temperature, among other settings.
Kevin Talbot, co-founder and managing partner of Relay Ventures said of CEO Walter De Brouwer in the statement: “[His] vision for the future of consumer healthcare is profound and Scanadu stands to make a lasting impact on an industry ripe for disruption.”
The bullish perspective around personalized health were echoed by Mark Cuban who has invested in a mobile health company that is working to integrate and aggregate data from mobile health apps.
Scanadu Scout will undergo its first clinical trials at the Scripps Translational Science Institute. The studies are part of the Wired for Health mobile trial, which includes patients who live with diabetes, hypertension and heart arrhythmia, according to a company statement. The baseline study will help design future controlled studies and is intended to help adults with optimal blood pressure levels.
Scanadu is also developing a disposable urine analysis testing platform, ScanaFlo, which works with a smartphone. It will seek FDA approval for measuring pregnancy complications, preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, heart-related kidney problems and urinary tract infections.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
That testing platform would put it in competition with Biosense Technologies, a company the FDA put on notice earlier this year for not having 510(k) clearance for its uChek urinalysis app. The company has since launched a crowdfunding campaign to fund its research as it seeks FDA clearance, according to Mobihealth News.
Not counting Indiegogo, the company has raised $13.1 million. So if you can raise that amount in a relatively short amount of time, why bother with crowdfunding? A spokeswoman for the company said it was more about crowdsourcing for feedback on the Scout than raising money:
“Indiegogo was an important step in the FDA process. For the file we will submit next year, we must have a usability study in addition to clinical trials that shows how consumers will use the device…It was never about the money, but gathering people from all over the world who believe in Scanadu’s mission and wanted to be part of making the medical tricorder a reality. We are embracing the crowd as researchers as well as our customers.
“Walter likes to say, if you give medicine to the crowds they’ll come up with a new kind of medicine. They might do things with it that surprises you… In our case, their feedback through the usability study will be a crucial part of our FDA submission — we need to know how they will use it, how many times a day..”
