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| Kinsa Health's smartphone-connected thermometer--Courtesy of Kinsa |
Kinsa made its smartphone plug-in thermometer, the first cleared by the FDA, available at several major consumer retailers including Apple ($AAPL) and Amazon ($AMZN) earlier this month. Now, in a move that's inverse to the usual order of events for med tech startups, the company has raised a $9.6 million Series A.
The company nabbed premier venture firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) to lead the financing, with participation from FirstMark Capital and other investors. The investment will go to help Kinsa scale up production and expand its marketing and hiring as well as to expand its product line.
Beth Seidenberg, a partner at KPCB, will join the startup's board as part of the deal. The firm views it as part of its portfolio of companies investing in the concept of the "Internet of Things," a notion that connectivity and smart capabilities will be infused into many of the objects we use in everyday life.
"The Kinsa thermometer and app have the unique ability to combine data tracking and analytics in new ways that will help us tackle local--and global--health crises," Seidenberg said in a statement. "I am thrilled to be joining the board of a company that empowers individuals to lead healthier lives by giving them more control over and insight into their health information."
The Kinsa Smart Thermometer retails for $29.99 and is accompanied by a free, downloadable Apple and Android app that the startup is continuing to refine.
The company expects users will be interested in sharing their temperature not just with their physician but also with networks of parents at a school or employees at an office. It's adding that capability soon. It also anticipates that the Kinsa and its app could be useful to track emerging population health problems.
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| Kinsa CEO Inder Singh |
"We've reimagined the world's most common medical device, the thermometer, and given it the potential to improve the health of entire communities. This supports our mission to create the first real-time map of human health using mobile technologies in order to track--and stop--the spread of illness," Kinsa founder and CEO Inder Singh said in a statement. "This funding provides us with the resources we need to drive toward this exciting vision."
Singh was previously EVP of the Clinton Health Access Initiative, which is part of the larger Clinton Foundation.
- here is the release
- and coverage from the Washington Post and mobihealthnews